Six Rotary International clubs have paid the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) fees for 40 inmates of the Kuje Medium Prison.
The six clubs, made up of: Rotary Club of Abuja Federal; Rotary Club of Apo, Abuja; E- Rotary Club of Nigeria; Rotary Club of Abuja, Kubwa; Rotary Club of Jigawa and Rotary Club of Wuse Central, Abuja, also presented study materials including textbooks, past question papers, notebooks and others to the inmates.
The Rotary International District Governor, Bisi Adegoke who unveiled the project after a meeting with the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) officials in Abuja on Thursday, said the project will expand beyond sponsoring inmates for examinations.
While lamenting that Nigerian prisons were suffering from infrastructural decay, he called on the clubs to look for more ways of partnering the NPS.
Speaking to Daily Trust after the meeting, the President of Rotary Club of Abuja federal, Mrs Koyona Duke said "we don't want their incarceration to be the end of their education."
She added that "the Nigeria Prison want the inmates to be reformed so that when they leave the prison, they become a better person and we want to be involved in that process."
Mrs Duke said the beneficiaries are both those on the Awaiting trial list and those already convicted.
"We want them to know that even if they are in the prisons, they are not just wasting time. So that when they leave, they are leaving with a change mind set to help contribute their quota to the development of the country," she added.
Also, the President of Rotary Club of Apo, Abuja, Abdullahi Idris said the project tagged "Liberating through Literacy" addresses the "Basic education and literacy" area of focus of Rotary International.
He said "the driving force behind the project is the need to give hope to the inmates so that they won't feel useless and neglected by the outside world.
Idris said the club will partner the NPS to explore other areas of welfare we could step in to help, especially in helping some of the inmates on awaiting trial to gain their freedom.
He also said other targets of the six clubs include the training of inmates to gain vocational skills to help them earn a living after leaving the prison.
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