By Mafugi Ceesay
Helping To Make A Difference (HMD), a charity, on Thursday 28 April 2022 facilitated the release of seven prisoners from Gambia’s Mile 2 State Central Prison by paying the fines imposed by courts.
The released inmates are six male and a female, with their ages ranging from 20 to 30 years.
Oftentimes, magistrates’ courts do sentence convicts to pay a fine or in default to serve a certain mandatory prison term.
The charity which is registered as a foundation in The Gambia also donated 20 bags of 20 kg rice, 20 bags of cornflour, and five bags of sugar to the prison.
The executive director of HMD, Saikou Balajo, said they help to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable persons such as sex workers and prisoners.
Modou Jarju, deputy director at the Prisons Department, welcomed “such a great initiative by s group of young Gambians aimed at changing the lives of their fellow Gambians, particularly the prisoners”.
He commended the foundation for “a job well done”, and urged them “to continue to serve humanity”.
Jarju informed the donor that Mile 2 prison is a rehabilitation center where inmates acquire skills such as soap making, carpentry and masonry, which are currently being taught by the Insight Training Institute.
He therefore called on the foundation to consider giving working tools to ease the work of prisoners released.
The spokesperson of the prisons, Lamin Ceesay, advised the released inmates to be law-abiding citizens. They must make the foundation proud by turning a new page in their life, he said.
