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THE Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, has called on female prison officers to rise up and take advantage of the enabling legal and policy environment created by government to work hard to achieve excellence as reformers.

She said this during the official launch of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Prison Ladies Association (PRILAS) on the theme, ‘Celebrating a Proud Past: Empowering the Female Prison Officer for Excellence’, at the Prisons Headquarters at Cantonments in Accra recently.

The minister, who congratulated the ladies for sustaining the association for the past decade, advised them to support and encourage each other as women, so they can rise to the top.

She said it was imperative for the Prisons leadership ‘to continually invest in the empowerment of female officers by building their capacity and creating a space for them at various levels of decision making in the Service’.

The acting Director-General of Prisons, Mr. Emmanuel Yao Adzator, commended the Ladies for their support for the Service for the past 10 years, and appealed to them to remain committed to their duties, and abhor all forms of indiscipline and negative attitude towards work.

“The time has come for you to take full advantage of available opportunities to develop your potentials. You must position yourselves to take up more challenging administrative roles within the administrative set up, as you are gradually becoming a force to reckon with in the Service,” Mr. Adzator stated.

He urged the Ladies to aspire to attain greater heights, and fully support the transition from the old prison system to an internationally accepted standard in corrections management.

The Member of Parliament for Tano North, Madam Freda Prempeh, who is a former Prisons Officer, was very delighted about the successes chalked by the Association and appealed to leadership not to only empower the ladies, but also improve upon the entire prison system to make all officers comfortable to carry out their duties effectively.

The National President of PRILAS and the Director of Prisons in charge of Welfare, Madam Josephine Fredua-Agyemang (Mrs.), was grateful to the dignitaries for gracing the occasion, and said the Association had pursued its aims and objectives with enthusiasm, and members, as well as prisoners, had benefited tremendously.

She said the Association had formed a Corrections Reforms Platform (COREP), which serves as a tool for soliciting funds to support reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of prison inmates. Madam Josephine added that the Association had also extended its benevolence to orphanages and hospitals across the country.

Other activities for the celebration include: health walk, lectures, donations, health talk and cervical cancer screening.