Inspired Individuals

I’d like to thank God for our development over the past six months and increased financial stability. Please pray for continued provision for us, both financially and through equipping our existing staff with passion and sending us the right people as we continue to expand.

Please could you pray for us as we launch a fundraising drive, as we recruit a country director for our office in Uganda and as we recruit a UK administrator.
Please pray for the prisoners and prisons staff we serve, especially those who are sitting University of London law exams as part of their correspondence studies over the coming weeks.

Thank you for your prayer support.

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Alexander McLean]

Thanks for this.
Our prayers are twofold: for God’s wisdom as we recruit three important new members of staff and for guidance as we establish our fellowship programme for senior prisons staff.

Thanks for supporting us.

Best wishes,

Alexander

Alexander McLean
Director General

UK: 07904 350 871
Uganda: +256 75 400 7698

alexandermclean@africanprisons.org

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Alexander McLean]

Dear Friends,

I thought you might be interested to receive an email or two every few months, sharing the work that we are doing with some of the most vulnerable people in Africa, through your generous support.

I am writing this sitting in the APP office, on the edge of Kampala. The sun is setting over the town centre, a few hazy kilometres away. The breeze from Lake Victoria, not far from here and clearly visible from our premises, reduces the lingering heating – Uganda has been experiencing a heat wave for the past few months, and you can tell. Kampala is a lush city, with plants, flowers and trees everywhere. The combination of equatorial sun and regular, intensive rain, is the perfect recipe for a vibrant, green landscape. With the rain missing, in places that green is beginning to fade to brown. The sound of worship drifts in through the window from our neighbouring church, which has always been ready to step in and conduct funerals for prisoners without families who were cared for by us before they died.

This afternoon I was with Bosco and Geoffrey, prison warders who you, dear supporters, are helping to study, for a diploma and degree in law respectively, with the University of London by correspondence (two of eight students we currently support through your help). We were joined by Fred, who completed his A levels (and was involved in our health, education and sports programmes) whilst in prison. Fred was sponsored by one of our volunteers to read law when released from prison, and is now doing the bar course to become an advocate.

We were conducting a moot – mock court proceedings, which gives students a chance to prepare a case and present in a court like environment, as if they were barristers (or advocates as they are known here). The case was one of capital murder, in which the advocates were making submissions at the sentencing stage about whether the defendant should receive the death sentence. The moot was based on the case of Derek Bentley, a British teenager, executed at the age of 19 after a highly controversial trial in which he was convicted for the murder of a policeman, after uttering to his co-accused who fired the gun ‘let him have it’. The case was pertinent both because of the youth of many of those that we serve in prison, and because the death penalty is still a very present reality in Uganda and many other African countries, not just for murder but crimes like treason, cowardice and mutiny too. We believe that moots can help prepare prisoners for their own court proceedings, and that prisons staff, and ex inmates, can play an important role in the law in countries without, or with a very limited, legal aid system.

On this visit to Uganda I will also be attending the opening of a library we have established, at Murchison Bay primary school within the Luzira Prison Complex, for 1800 or so children, mostly the offspring of prisons staff. The library contains about 4000 books supporting the Ugandan primary curriculum, and can host 100 or more children at a time. When I met her yesterday, the school’s librarian was beaming with delight at the new facility. Our team of librarians will be supporting her in the management of the new facility, over the coming year. We believe it’s crucial to invest in the development of the whole prison community if we are to bring about change in the lives of prisoners. By supporting, nurturing and helping develop prisons staff and their families, we believe that we can equip those who are with prisoners day in day out to be instruments of change, and help make prisons an attractive working environment.

That’s all for the time being. It would be great to hear from you if you have comments or suggestions in relation to this travel journal.

Thank you again for helping to bring dignity and hope to men, women and children in prisons in Africa, through healthcare, education, access to justice and community reintegration.
Best wishes,

Alexander

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Alexander McLean]

APP is excited to announce the MBPS Education Campaign!

For 30 days running up to World Book Day (01-03-12), APP is running an online fundraising campaign in support of the Murchison Bay Primary School Library opening in February.

Murchison Bay Primary School provides education to 1,800 children, the majority of whom are children of the prison staff and part of the prison community.

We are asking supporters to tell us their favourite children’s book and donate the value to APP in order that we are able to provide the children of Murchison Bay Primary School a window into the exciting, mind opening and inspiring world of literature. As part of APP’s education strategy, we are opening the Murchison Bay Primary School Library. Many of us take for granted that reading and an enjoyment of books was part of our childhood and education. We need your help in bringing the magic of fictional worlds to the children we are helping in MBPS.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
- We are asking Facebook users to share their favourite children’s book title on their status
- We are asking Twitter Followers to tweet the title of their favourite children’s book to @africanprisons
- We are asking supporters to then donate the value of this favourite book to APP via text. All you need to do is text MBPS12 £5 to 70070 and you can help a child discover their favourite children’s book.
· Become a friend of APP and commit to giving to APP monthly to provide us with the long-term security we need to continue our vital work and to ensure we are able to constantly renew our library books in schools and prisons to make sure the collection is up-to-date and relevant. You can do this via JustGiving at: http://www.justgiving.com/africanprisonsproject/donate or by printing and completing the regular giving leaflet that’s attached.
· Share this e-mail among your friends and family.