TWO toddlers, male and female, who are just over a year old, are ‘serving time’ at the Ho Female Prison, sharing cells with their mothers.
One of them was born in the correctional centre by a convicted mother, while the other came with a mother who is a remand prisoner standing trial for a felony.
This has placed an additional burden on the prison authorities to feed and care for them.
Search for foster parents
For now, the Department of Social Welfare is looking for foster parents for the children.
When contacted at the time of filing the report, the Volta Regional Director of Social Welfare, Stella Mawusi, gave an assurance that preparations were underway to unite the children with foster families.
This came to light when the members of the 2000-Year Group of the Old Mawuli Students Union (OMSU) donated food and other items to the prison during the just-ended 75th anniversary of their alma mater.
The items included bags of rice, tubers of yams, eggs, soft drinks, cassava, bags of water, cassava and corn dough, and sanitary pads.
The President of the group, Divine Tawia Akuaku, said the gesture was a response to the group’s concern for the inmates.
He said prisoners were an integral part of society and needed the love of all and sundry to reform and later integrate into society.
Chief Superintendent of Prisons and Officer-in-Charge of the Ho Female Prison, CSP Millicent Okity, who received the items, expressed gratitude for the gesture, which she described as touching.
She entreated other public-spirited individuals, corporate groups, non-governmental organisations and churches to similarly support the prison.
