A Belgian prison counselor was drawn into tears during a visit to the Kumasi Central Prison where she witnessed what she considered appalling conditions of inmates.
Turkish-born Fatima Betul says the prisoners deserve a better life than what they are going through presently.
She led a delegation of Betulabla Foundation, a Turkey-based NGO, to donate three cattle and ten bags of rice to the facility.
The team’s visit to the Prison was to fulfill the wish of a Ghanaian imprisoned in Brussels, Belgium.
The unnamed inmate’s dream is to establish a foundation to reach out to inmates in Ghana who have been languishing in prisons.
The Kumasi Central Prison is one of the over-populated correctional facilities in the country.
With an original capacity of 414, the prison is now home to at least 1,700 inmates.
Nhyira News checks revealed inmates are plagued with diseases such as tuberculosis and chicken pox with infected persons exposing their relatives and other members of the public who visit them to cross infection.
Also, poor feeding has been the bane of inmates as officials struggle to maintain the centre.
For inmates, a taste of beef is not only a privilege but an honour.
Chaplain at the Prison, Superintendent Paa Kwesi Ansah believes the donation will make a difference in the lives of the inmates.
“It will make a difference especially when they enjoy the meat and the rice as well. It has been a long time they tasted cow meat so I think they will enjoy,” he revealed.
Led by Deputy Director of Prisons, Lord Nii Boye Tagoe, the Ashanti Regional Prisons Commander on the tour, members of the Turkish team were touched by the poor conditions in the prisons.
Speaking mostly through an interpreter, leader of the group told Nhyira News the inmates deserve improved conditions comparable with their counterparts in Belgium and elsewhere.
Betul is appalled circumstances in a prison in the Belgian town of Brussels where she has been working as a counselor, especially accommodation is much better than what is available for their counterparts in the Kumasi Central Prisons.
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