Songs of praise and preaching by various Pastors from different churches is the noise that people hear when passing by Chichiri Prison during weekends.
Churches flock to the prison on Saturdays to give inmates the message of hope and love shared in Bible.
Such initiatives have helped prisoners not to be cut off from the life of gathering as Christians or Muslims and to pray while they are behind the walls.
Mphatso Kusokoso who has walked out of the prison as a free man applaud evangelization done to inmates at Chichiri.
Kusokoso who was slapped with four year jail term for the crime of burglary said he started having hope that he wil walk out of prison as a transformed person when he was visited by Community of St Egidio.
The ex-inmate added that the Gospel that the members of Community of St Egidio preached laid a foundation of reflection on his life after serving his jail term.
One of the members of Community of St Egidio Pemphero Nehiya, expressed satisfaction with prison evangelization – which is done through fortnightly visits – saying it helps to build friendship with the inmates.
“They are people who are taken to be useless, but with our coming every fortnight, we give them hope that they are human beings just like another person out there and with the Gospel many have changed for the better and we believe that they are to be responsible citizens once the doors of the prison are to open for them,” said Nehiya.
Chichiri Prison spokesperson Warder Damiano Fanuel said prison evangelization is complementing reformatory process of the inmates.
“Prisons are there to reform people, so evangelization in prisons especially here at Chichiri helps them first to accept that they are at this place, second they are being helped with reflection upon their lives, how they can live after a judge or magistrate passed the judgment.
“This helps them to be more reformed than in the way we could have helped them to be changed, because they have that chance of being reformed spiritually,” said Fanuel.
He explained further that the prison do receive more than ten different Churches for prison evangelization every Saturday with Muslims coming on Fridays for prayers as well.
Apart from preaching to inmates, Churches do also give other basic needs to the prisoners among them being soap, sugar, body lotion, and sanitary pads to female inmates.
