07 Dec 2015

Prisons’ deputy commissioner, Mr Ontlametse Motsebe, has appreciated donations from Masa Centre.

Mr Motsebe said this a Masa Centre event where prisoners and children from Holy Cross Hospice (HCH) received gifts.

“The donation comes handy as we have already established libraries in some of the prisons for our inmates,” he said.

He said they had more than 200 inmates who had enrolled with Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL), who were doing Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE), Junior Certificate Level (JC), Botswana Government Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) and tertiary to further their studies.

“They will use the books to keep their minds from idling because idling mind is the devils temple,” he said.

Mr Motsebe said the prisons department had a mandate to rehabilitate offenders, under their care, but could not afford on their own.

“Without the support of non governmental organisations like yours, we will not be able to fully satisfy our mandate, hence, I would like to encourage other stakeholders, to come on board,” he expressed.

Manager for Holy Cross Hospice, Ms Pearl Ncube, thanked Masa Centre, for having identified their organisation as a beneficiary.

She said the Holy Cross was an NGO, therefore it was a great privilege to be afforded the gifts, as they relied solely on donations and fundraising for the existence of their organisation.

“Our organisation was established in 1984 by members of the Anglican Church and the Rotary Club, with the aim of supporting people who are living with terminal illness,” she said.

She said since the inception of their organisation, they had run two programmes that were the adult based-care and the home based programme.

“In our adult based care, patients are picked from their respective homes to the centre to receive support such as nursing, psychosocial, spiritual and nutritional support, while in home based care, patients were visited twice or three times a week depending on the need of their patients.

Ms Ncube said they were aiming to provide 24hrs support for all the patients that they cared for.

The chief operations manager at Masa Centre, Mr Uzoma Anugom , said they had decided to adopt the HCH permanently as they treasured their ideals of taking care of the vulnerable and terminally ill patients that required necessities such as food and clothing.

“In a smally way, we as Masa Centre and the general public can continue to pledge and facilitate assistance where these basic necessities are concerned. ENDS