Christian Service Gives Minors, Other Young Prisoners A Future

Posted: 14th October 2007

The Catholic Church and a Protestant NGO run a literacy class for juvenile delinquents in Kompong Ch

KOMPONG CHAM (UCAN) -- Once a day, the voices and laughter of almost 30 teenage boys bounce along the corridors of a provincial prison here.

The "minors," in their blue prisoner uniforms, are making their way to a classroom to learn how to read and write Khmer, and other academic basics.

It is one of the few times a day the young inmates can get out of their cells at the penitentiary in Kompong Cham, 80 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh, and that alone is cause for joy.

"I used to study in the first grade in public school, Eour Sove, 14, told UCA News. "I miss school and hope to continue my studies when I am free."

The boy, the jail's youngest prisoner, is serving a five-year term for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl.

The jail has about 500 inmates, including 22 women. The imprisoned minors share the facilities with the adults, but they can get an education while serving time, thanks to a Christian literacy project.

Arunreah (sunrise), a Protestant-run NGO, runs the program. Officially, it is only for prisoners aged 18 and below, but older inmates wanting to learn to read and write may join them, says Phan Bora, a Catholic Arunreah worker.

"We started this project in 2003," Bora told UCA News, "and we follow the program of the provincial Department of Education, which provides some of the project's books." In the prison ministry Arunreah shares with the Catholic Church, he explained, the Protestant NGO focuses on vocational training and literacy, and the Catholic Church provides psychological and family support.

However, he said, the Catholic Church has also helped the education project start a prison library, which now has more than 50 Khmer-language books, and a computer room that has five computers.

Bora also explained that Arunreah takes its vision statement from Saint Matthew's Gospel: "For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your home; naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison, and you visited me."

"Before every class ends," he continued, "we pray briefly with the inmates, that they find their way in life." His own "great joy," Bora added, is "to see released prisoners start a new life with what they learned from our project."

Keo Sombo, the prison's education officer, acknowledged that Bora's observation is not just wishful thinking. "We can see the results," Keo told UCA News. "Most prisoners do not return after their release."

He praised the Arunreah project and said more joint programs are planned, such as training prison staff to teach the prisoners directly.

Mok Chaidara, one of two literacy program teachers, told UCA News most of his students are very clever and smart but had no chance to study at public schools. After working with Arunreah one-and-a-half years, he said he knows an illiterate person can easily be cheated, but prisoners who are educated before their release are capable of educating their own children and relatives.

The project is not just about basic education, Hong Darany, the director of Arunreah, told UCA News. Another goal is helping young prisoners to put behind them the bad behavior that brought them to prison and to understand that society does not reject them. "Our lesson named 'Bridges of Hope' deals with family conflict and the way of the human heart," she said. In her view, ignorance due to illiteracy partly explains why the young people turned to violence.

As for the prison library, Darany said, "We bought some books, mostly novels and general knowledge books, so that they don't feel so lonely."

Mat Ry, 25, says he appreciates the literacy classes he has been attending. "Before, I could not write and read," he told UCA News, "but now I can read the books in the prison library." After his release next year, he added, he intends to open a small business.

Article Source: UCAN