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Italy and ILO for empowerment of Mekelle inmates

27/06/2013

In the presence of Ato Hadis Zenebe, Head of Security and rnAdministration, representing His Excellency the Tigray Regional rnPresident, the ILO Directorrn of Regional Office, Mr. George Okutho and the Director of Italian rnDevelopment Cooperation (IDC) Office of Addis Ababa, Mr. Fabio Melloni, rnthe handing over ceremony of the Project ‘EMPOWERMENT OF PEOPLE IN rnPRISON THROUGH SKILL AND INCLUSIVE FINANCE SUPPORT WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ONrn WOMEN PRISONERS’ will be held on Thursday, 27 June 2013, in the Mekellern Prison Compound.

Started in 2012, the project has been rnimplemented by ILO in the past year, through a 650,000 Euro grant made rnavailable by the Italian Development Cooperation to foster women rneconomic empowerment at Mekelle Prison and WISE (Organisation for Women rnin Self-Employment). The Italian intervention in support of Mekelle’s rninmates came after previous similar experiences undertaken by IDC in rnother countries such as Lebanon and Afghanistan.

The underlying rnvision of the initiative is to create a prison which is aimed at the rnrehabilitation of inmates through an empowering and learning environmentrn and where prisoners are conceived as citizen who will be helped to rnreintegrate themselves into the society and to be able to contribute to rnsocial and community wellbeing and development.

The project has rnfocused on empowering all of the female inmates as well as a number of rnmale prisoners through education, skills training, financial literacy rnand cooperative management, as well as opportunities to access finance rnto engage in economically useful activities, with the collaboration of rnimplementing partners, among which Dedebit Microfinance Institution rn(DECSI) played a key role by partnering in financial training as well asrn provision of financial services for savings, credit and insurance rnthrough its brank within the prison premises. Where prison inmates were rnrelying on support from family and friends, now inmates are making moneyrn transfers to family members to support them with school fees, living rnexpenses and other support. Hundereds also save significant sums from rntheir earnings in a saving account with the DECSI branch within the rnprison. The initiative has enabled the development of 26 active rncooperatives that have established successful businesses and empowering rnopportunities for prison inmates and released prisoners.

All the rnefforts made by the prison administration, with the support of the rnregional authorities, and the encouraging results achieved in changing rninmates’ living conditions, place Makalle on the right track to become arn successful model for Ethiopia and Africa.

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