EU donates books for minors in Cameroon Prison

But inmates preferred food and other items

A special school for minors incarcerated at the Douala Central Prison at New Bell has had its trove of learning material substantially boosted thanks to a contribution from the European Union. Hundreds of books and other didactic material were handed over to prison officials recently.

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Hyppolite Sando, a representative of the EU program for the amelioration of detention conditions and human rights (PACDET), said the donation was part of the second phase of the project. He estimated the cost of the text and notebooks, dictionaries, reams of paper, files, mathematical sets, etc, at over 2 million FCFA.
However, a fraction of the hundreds of minors said the money would have served a better purpose if it were meant to improve their feeding conditions. Mouthe Mathias, a 15-year-old inmate said he eats a diet of corn and beans or rice once a day and mostly goes hungry the rest of the time. He said the inadequate feeding adds to problems of intimidation from older inmates, chronic overcrowding, violence, sexual abuse, torture, poor sanitation, and rampant corruption, etc.
Nonetheless, a spokesperson for the inmates said they were overwhelmed by the EU gesture which he noted was not the first of its kind. He extended what he called sincere gratitude to the donors, adding that the donation will enormously help in facilitating the knowledge acquisition of the minors even while in prison. He assured the donors that the material will be used prudently and for the intended purpose.
The New Bell Prison Administrator, Joseph Tsala Amougou, for his part said the material would enormously contribute to the preparation of the kids for their future social reintegration. He said the special prison school, via the EU effort, will remarkably meet its objectives. The school offers lessons for various levels beginning from Class 2 primary education to Form 4.
Meantime, Hyppolite Sando, flanked by Littoral Delegate for Basic Education, Diwouta Mbengue, assured the beneficiaries of the EU largesse that they could remain hopeful that more of such gestures will come their way in the near future. Stressing that imprisonment was not commensurate to the end of life on earth, he told the beneficiaries to begin preparing their social reintegration by studying hard so as not to be left behind when they get freedom one day.
The New Bell Central Prison symbolises what some rights watchdogs have termed unendurable incarceration conditions nationwide. It was constructed in 1935 for a prisoner population of 800 inmates but today counts more than 3500 among which are hundreds of minors held there for prolonging pre-trial detention. According to Tsala Amougou most of them leave jail even more delinquent than when they first moved in, as they freely rub shoulders with some of the most hardened adult inmates for want of space