A scene during the donation
POS Foundation, facilitators of the ‘Justice for All Programme’ has commended the Ghana Prisons Service for the preemptive measures it has put in place to safeguard the security of inmates in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the foundation, it has observed that there will be insecurity and chaos if there is an outbreak of the deadly virus in the prisons which are battling with overcrowding.
The Executive Director of POS Foundation, Jonathan Osei Owusu, gave the commendation when the foundation donated some personal protective equipment (PPE) and other assorted items to the Kumasi Central Prisons.
The foundation donated Vitamin C tablets, Veronica buckets, automated handwashing machines, liquid soaps, dustbins, tissue papers, gloves and some food items – all worth GH¢41,000 – to the Kumasi Central Prisons and a cheque of GH¢2,000 to be used as transportation for onward distribution of some items to Manhyia and Amanfrom Local prisons.
“The coronavirus pandemic could have a grave impact on the prisons in case of a possible outbreak of the virus across various prisons in Ghana, especially due to their high congestion rate and poor ventilation, coupled with the lack of a balanced diet from the feeding grant of GH¢1.80 per day,” he observed.
Mr. Owusu appealed to the government to provide adequate incentives and contagious disease allowance for prison officers for the dedication, professionalism and health risk taken in these crucial times.
The foundation, together with its funding agencies (GIZ/German Cooperation and Open Society Foundation/OSIWA) under the Covid-19 Prisons Response Outreach Project, is donating PPE to prisons across the country and supporting them with cotton materials for the production of about one million face masks for the prisons and families of prison officers in support of the hard work by the Prison Service towards the prevention of Covid-19 in prisons.
So far, Kumasi Central, Tamale Central and Navrongo Local prisons have benefitted from the German Cooperation/GIZ funded programmes.
The others are Nsawam Medium Security and Sunyani Central prisons whose items were funded by Open Society Foundation (OSF)/ OSIWA.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak