Prison Fellowship The Gambia holds 6th Annual Angel Tree Party

As part of their annual events, the board and volunteers of Prison Fellowship The Gambia, over the weekend, held its 6th Annual “Angel Tree” party for the Greater Banjul Area families of prisoners, at the Relax Sahel Amusement Center adjacent to Coco Ocean Resort and Spa.

In order to ensure children or families of prisoners attend the party, as usual, free buses were provided to collect the children of prisoners from different locations to the venue of the event, where they were given launch and treated to sumptuous food, followed by games of different sorts. The kids also received gifts in the name of their parents that are in prison.

Speaking at the party, the executive director of Prison Fellowship The Gambia, Dr Abee Abraham, said the programme of Prison Fellowship International is being operated in more than 128 countries around the world and Prison Fellowship The Gambia is part of these countries.

He said their role is to work with prisoners, ex-prisoners, their families whilst working with government towards reforming the criminal justice system.

“We believe that at the end of the day, justice is best if people are reformed and taken back into society, and this has to do with families, victims of crimes and even the victims, as we believe in holistic approaches to justice,” he said.

He said this is all done in line with the word of God to give a helping hand to others and to be our ‘brother’s keeper’, which all boils down to the word and mercy of God as preached by Jesus Christ.

He said they would conduct another programme of such nature during the Christmas festivities.

Dr Abraham said the event brought together about three hundred children to partake in the celebration and “there will be another party for prisoners’ families in the Central River Region, Farafenni, and other parts of the country such as Janjangbureh, next week.”

He further delivered a message of wisdom encouraging families of prisoners not to lose hope but to have faith in God, as they lead their lives, that the almighty God is able to upkeep them and change things for them for the better. They should only believe in him and cease not to pray to Him.

“We celebrate this every Christmas and give kids gifts and games just to enjoy themselves and have hope as they will get back their fathers, uncles, aunties and mothers who are in prison,” he said.

According to Dr Abraham, they conduct business forums to help the wives of prisoners learn something that can help them to have jobs and sources of livelihood in order to sustain themselves and their families.

This, he noted, would go a long way in helping them keep their families intact from being shattered and destroyed.

On behalf of the Prison Fellowship of the Gambia, Dr Abraham also thanked various institutions for supporting them in their endeavour, such as GTBank, Trust Bank, GNPC, TK Motors, Africell, Bankers Association, Hope International Idea, Affopiape Hope Country International and other organisations and individuals in The Gambia and abroad.