Nthatuoa Koeshe
THE Rotary Club of Maloti this week donated educational books to Lesotho Juvenile Training Centre (JTC) inmates.
The books were donated by well-wishers from Australia.
Lesotho Correctional Services (LCS) Acting Assistant Commissioner Mokhethi Raphuthing said the books would assist the JTC’s educational programmes that are meant to rehabilitate the inmates.
“We are tasked with rehabilitating inmates who have been convicted of various crimes and these books will be helpful,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Raphuthing said.
He said the books will broaden the children’s knowledge and transform them into better people on their release.
Rotary Club of Maloti president Yande Sikazwe Mothae said the books were donated by an Australian organisation named Books for Lesotho.
The organisation has in the past few years been collecting second-hand books in Australia and shipping them to Lesotho where they have in the past been donated to different institutions like schools.
“A fortnight ago, we helped launch the Mpharane Community Library in Mohale’s Hoek and last week we also donated educational books to four primary and secondary schools.
“We are donating to these children today because we have a responsibility to develop and prepare them for life after prison,” Ms Mothae said.
She said the club values education as an integral tool in the rehabilitation of inmates.
“We are a group of volunteers who believe in ‘service above self’. We use our time and resources to help those who are less fortunate and we do this in collaboration with other organisations throughout the world,” Ms Mothae said.
The inmates expressed gratitude to the Rotary Club of Maloti for remembering their plight. The donation was therefore, a sign that while some may take them as convicts deserving of condemnation, others know that they need help.
“The books will be used to improve our education and we will use them constructively and take care of them. We are here because we have wronged and so we are glad that there are some people out there who still remember us despite our crimes and see us as humans,” said one inmate who cannot be named because he is a minor.
