The Rotary Club of Dumaguete South and the Philippine National Police launched Friday, a livelihood program called “Gunting at Suklay Para sa Kabuhayan,” for inmates in different jails in Dumaguete City.

 Twenty-one detainees were the initial beneficiaries at the ceremony held at the Negros Oriental Detention and Rehabilitation Center.

President Raffy Besas of the Rotary Club of Dumaguete South told the inmates not to lose hope, and to fight the wrong perception that inmates who have served their sentence have not more place to go back to in the community.

Police provincial director, S/Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, said the project will equip the inmates with the skills once they rejoin society. He was hoping that a prisoner will come out of jail as a barber, at least, and not anymore as a thief or a drug pusher.

Buenafe said recipients will undergo a screening process, and only those who are about to be released, interested in learning, and have no derogatory record in jail will be accommodated.

After graduation from the training, recipients will be given a kit they can use to earn a decent living outside of the prison.

Meanwhile, selected inmates at the BJMP in Bajumpandan, Dumaguete will also undergo the training this week.

Acting jail warden of NODRC, retired police S/Supt. Diomedes Sombilon said the jail is not just a place of violators and criminals.

Various activities are undertaken such as religious and non-formal education, livelihood projects such as furniture making, among others, are conducted to transform the jail into a community, Sombilon added.*JG

back to top