Ghana: prison inmates to receive music training

The Prison Project is initiated by Yaw Sarpong who is celebrating his fourth decade as a gospel act. It involves the construction of music centres in Ghana’s prisons and is intended to "restore hope to prisoners through gospel music and other specialized outreach programs."

Speaking about the project, Esther Tettekuor Quayson, who is in charge of fundraising and coordination the project, said Ankaful Maximum Security Prison will be the first beneficiary.

“Through the powerful medium of music, the Prison Project will be enabled to create positive learning experiences that can help to raise the self-confidence and aspirations of men and women in our prisons, open doors to other forms of education and learning.

“The numerous men and women that our criminal justice system releases from prison each year return to communities around the country including yours. There is therefore the need to provide solutions and programmes that will help society understand the plights of our prisoners and ex-convicts and take up their roles in shaping their lives to fit into society."

The programme is in partnership with the Ghana Prison Service, and will provide inmates with leadership and certificate courses in music.Alongside with this project, Sarpong and his church will organise a concert by the end of the year.

“We are all committed to making the prison project a success," said executive director of the Prison Project Roland Azure. "We are building a strong advisory board to help keep us in check. I also have a young, passionate and professional team who are committed to making this dream a success.”