The youth ministry of the Central Assemblies of God Church in Koforidua in the Eastern Region has donated assorted food items, second-hand clothing and other items worth GH₵8.000.00 to the inmates of Akuse Local Prison.

The items donated also included, pairs of bathroom sandals, sanitary pads, toiletries and fresh fruit juice with pastries. The rest were bags of sachet water, paste and brush, hand fun, bathing soap and morning devotional books.

Handing over the items at the forecourt of the Akuse Local Prison, the Youth President, Mr Samuel Acolatse said the gesture was part of activities to climax their annual Youth Week celebration.

Quoting the bible verse of Hebrew 13: 3, he indicated that the Youth Ministry’s decision was to fulfill scripture, which says “Remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison yourself and those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your own body”.  

He said Christians must not see prisoners as outcasts in the society but rather show them love because God emphasised the need to always show love to one another.

Mr Acolatse noted that God in his own wisdom had diverse means of causing people to repent and that being in prison custody may be God’s own process of winning him/her into the body of Christ although not every inmate had committed a crime that warranted imprisonment. 

“We the Central Assemblies of God Youth Ministry today wish we could feast and have some time to share the word of God to encourage these our brothers and sisters who are in prison custody today here in Akuse but as we are all aware, the world is not in normal times so I believe that God himself will speak to them through the devotional handbooks we have added to the items”, he said.

Receiving the items, the officer in- charge of religious affairs, Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) Rufus Eshun Mensah Jnr. commended the Central Assemblies of God Church youth for the kind gesture.

He also appealed to the pharmaceutical companies and other benevolent organisations to donate vitamin C drugs to the inmates to help boost their immune system to lower their risk of contracting COVID -19.

“What we have in stock is not enough so I am pleading with the vitamin C production companies and all individuals to donate some to us”, he said.

He indicated that the inmates were given vitamin C everyday to help boost their immune system because their daily feeding fee of GH₵ 1.80 was inadequate to serve them with nutritious food like kontomire and other fruits.

The Akuse Local Prison currently has a population of 271 inmates made up of seven females.

From: David Kodjo, Akuse.