THROUGH THEIR EYES, I SEE MY LIFE.

 Every genuine dream is an answer to human problem.
B.O.A 2015

As i walk and work in the prisons in Nigeria, i see potentials, i see solutions to human problem caged, i see time and energy that can be converted into products and service, i  also see windows with bars, long fences and constant present prison officers watching over the inmates to prevent them from escaping.

Can they escape, what will happen if they are apprehended once an attempt for escape is made, is physical escape not dangerous to their lives.

In other to help them escape from what i called the "imprisonment of the mind" Dream Again Prison & Youth Foundation has been educating and training inmates in Otukpo prisons to help them utilize their time and energy in adding value to themselves so that when release they can be useful to themselves and the society at large

We believe that when we "Educate and train a prisoner, we are making the society better and safer"

Here are some quote from our Dream Again Students in Otukpo Prison, Benue State Nigeria.

Awodi O.C said "Through the help of Dream Again , the whole number of my cell-mate are being positive in their dealings"

Thank God .U "Dream Again has made me to be the arrow shoot of the world"

Ofuh  M.A  " The  Academy has made me to live a life of purpose, through Dream Again i discover my purpose".

T.A " Dream Again Academy has waken me up despite my illiterate level, now i know am more valuable than crime"

A.U "Dream Again has help me to realize my God given potential and the need to go back to school"

O.A "By the help of Dream Again, now i believe in myself more than ever before"

S.E "In a short while Dream Again has made me to believe in my dream for the ministry of the gospel"

E.O "If not for Dream Again i will never discover my myself, the foundation make me to believe everything is possible"

F.N.P "Dream Again has made me to discover that am not a convict but a transformer"

J.S " Before now i was a bad boy, but Dream Again has transformed me to a good person"

S.I "Formerly i was living a life of a self centered person but Dream Again made me realize that the life we live for others is the rent we pay on earth"

P.A "Dream Again Academy has made me to discover myself through the world of books"

S.O "The Academy has help me to write off excuses for failure and be optimistic in life"

Inas.J.O "Before now i was a person full of social vices and crime committer, but Dream Again Academy has break me, re-mold me, rebuild me and transform me to a person of positive mental attitude and also made me realize am much more valuable than crime"

B.J "I was living a purposeless life  before, but through the help of Dream Again i have discover my musical talent"

A.O. As a timid child and an illiterate person Dream Again has illuminated my world


Mahatma Gandhi 
 You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

If they succeed in imprisoning the mind of the prisoners via incarceration instead of creating facilities and avenue within the prison that will not duck the prisoner potentials and dreams, then  the purpose of imprisonment is not been achieve.

Knowing fully well that mind imprisonment is worst than physical prison, me and my team have embark on a journey and we are serving  as the catalyst for prisoners to escape the imprisonment of the mind while in incarceration.

Join Us...



 

THE PRISON OF MY DREAM

THE PRISON OF MY DREAM

 The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. Fyodor Dostoevsky 

Russian   novelist (1821 - 1881)

My friend James Edoga asked a question in his book “Stop Ducking The Eagle” 
How healthy is our convictions about convicts?

What is our position about prisoners? How concerned are we for the incarcerated? The answers are entrenched in the inhuman conditions and potential depleting mistreatment that run and reign behind those huge walls of most prisons. It seems like once one is convicted of a crime he automatically loses every right a living person should have by the nations with little or no respect for human rights, where you have security agents manhandling even the innocent man on the street as though criminal until proven otherwise. Should one be unlucky with them you find yourself behind bars though you may be innocent of charges? Now for the poor state of most prisons, that arrest may mean a temporal ban on your potentials and talents and a halt to whatever you are about.

 It is common knowledge and an acceptable fact that in  incarceration of every many prison cells are great eagle personalities idling and wasting away their great potentials and their prime for crimes they did or did not commit. While crime does not expunge the potentials of a person who commits one, incarceration alone does not make them any better either. Prisons should be not just be run only as an institute for punishments. Rather it should be one that is committed to rehabilitation and reordering perverted potentials and talents; especially when we realize such a perversion is one major wheel that drives crimes.

No one who recognizes his own importance and relevance to the society and is about that significance would want to breach a law and be branded a convict to have his noble pursuit halted much less aborted by incarceration or in some worst cases; death.

I believe a poor self-worth is strongly related to crime. An eagle that is conscious of her soar-nature would prefer and do everything to fly skyward than cage-ward. However, for those perhaps, with low self esteem who already finds themselves in a cage of prison for whatever reasons should not be reduced to ducks nor held in longer than necessary by their keepers. Awaiting trials and pending cases should be expedited. Also, unnecessary adjournments of court should be outlawed from professional practice. Let prisons be revamped into confinements for character rescue and attitude control, rather than a place for people’s potentials imprisonment, as in the case of many prison houses today.

How helpful and transforming it would be our society and world should great institutions of learning can extend their campuses to prisons in order to reclaim misguided great potentials that crime has misled in there. No doubt inmates, most of them, would shade off attitude and grab such opportunity to prove with time, themselves otherwise to the stigma their imprisonment appends.

  http://www.jamesedoga.blogspot.com

It is my desire to work and walk through the prisons in Nigeria and see facilities both educational and recreational that inmates can  utilize to constructively add value to their lives.

I look forward to seeing inmates in prison talking with confidence and their shoulder’s high of their dreams and the positive things they want to contribute to the society when release.

What if we stop seeing them as prisoner’s, inmates or convicts but as transformers, people with dreams and energy that need to be mentored and guided towards personal and national development.

“When we train a prisoner, we are directly making our society better and safer”

TRAIN A PRISONER, MAKE THE SOCIETY SAFER AND BETTER!

TRAIN A PRISONER, MAKE THE SOCIETY SAFER AND BETTER!

 

       Nigeria is believed to be the giant of Africa with a population of more  than 170 million people and blessed with so much natural resources, that is underutilized, and so still backward in terms of development as a nation.
 Unemployment bite's deep. Experts have said the unemployment rate in Nigeria is like a time bomb waiting to explode. Obviously, prevailing situation indicate it has perhaps detonated.

A larger percentage of youth and college graduate roams the street searching for scarcely available white collar job. Most of these youths embrace crime and the end result is prison; incarceration of their genuine potentials.

The prison situation in Nigeria is yet to conform to Human Right Standard for prisons across the globe which stipulate educational training be given to inmates in prisons as way of rehabilitating them fit for re-integration.

 Dream Again Prison and Youth Foundation bridges the gap of educating and rehabilitating inmates in the quest to actualizing  her vision of transforming prisons in Nigeria from an institute of punishment to an academy of positive change.

In pursuit of our vision, the first library in Otukpo prison, Beneu State, was institute to kick start the mission  to providing prisoners through out Nigeria's  prisons and beyond the opportunity to learn and the chance to grow, so they can embrace their experiences and use them as springboard into a new life.

Our training runs in three progressive educational stages namely
> Pre-Vocational
> Vocational and
> Employ-ability

Our curriculum includes: 
> Public speaking
> Debate
> Team work
> Recreation
> and more

This curriculum is dynamic to provide inmates with tailored training to carter for individual peculiar challenges so that they can be able to effectively use their stories to inspire other youths.

Our goal is to work  and walk through prisons in Nigeria and hear inmates talk with their shoulders high of their dreams and the positive change they are  determined to contribute to the society, upon release.

Our believes is, "train a prisoner, make the society safer and better".