By ELIZABETH VUVU
TWENTY-five inmates from the Buka, Lakiemata and Kerevat Correctional Service can now consider themselves lucky to be equipped with skills on rice and organic farming.
The inmates, all males ages between 20 and 35, graduated last Thursday with certificates in rice and organic farming after attending a weeklong training at the OISCA Rabaul Eco-Tech Training Centre in East New Britain.
The training was funded by OISCA with the support of Cosmo Oil.
Instructor-in-charge, Junias ToVuvu said OISCA had an extension programme in place that provided essential training for inmates to equip them for life after they are released from jail.
“They (inmates) are part of the human race too and should not be alienated just because they committed a crime that put them in jail. So we are helping them by training them with skills that they can later put to use when they return to their respective communities,” he said.
Meanwhile, OISCA also with the support of Cosmo Oil, have three projects established at the Kerevat Correctional Service namely piggery, fishpond and rice.
Mr ToVuvu said even warders at the institution had attended short courses at OISCA.
Meanwhile, director of OISCA, Katsuyuki Sawai, when congratulating the graduating inmates, said agriculture was an important part of society.
He said it was good to adapt skills on organic farming as the current traditional way of shifting cultivation was ineffective as it destroyed the land thus contributing to global warming.
Mr Sawai said agriculture and environment conservation must be balanced.