A group of ex-convicts recently hosted a drug and crime awareness event at the Evangelical Brethren Church to educate the youth on crime, life in prison and drugs.
According to one of the ex-convict’s, Thulani ‘Nani’ Matsoso they have seen that young people are faced with a lot of challenges which is sometimes the cause of why they land them in prison.
He said this is why they want to address the youth as they know how prison life can be.
The group of ex-convicts during their National Equity (Say no to drugs and crime campaign) performed a drama on the hardships of prison life and drugs.
They also shared their stories with the congregation and had interaction with the young people.
Matsoso said: “We want to change the mindset of the youth by having these youth talks and dramas.
“It is also through such initiatives that we find out that there is a lot of bullying, substance abuse, gangs in schools and izikhothane among other challenges in our schools.
“Some of the young people find it easy to speak to us because we are open about what we have gone though in life.”
He said for some of them it was only through our incarceration that they found Christ and spiritual rehabilitation.
This is how they are giving back as they want to have prevention of crime in the community.
Matsoso said they don’t want their youth to experience the bitterness of crime because prison is hell and that the youth must know that crime does pay but in a bad way.
“We are now working to better our communities and hope that through our motivation, skills development and youth talks we can help the youth to change their ways.
“Thank you to the youth desks, police and churches that have been working with us and the women in our Nation Equity team who have helped us with integration back into society as at first most of us did not believe in God and were doing crime for the fame but now we have seen the light.
“Thank you also to all residents who are accommodated us back into society,” he said.
The National Equality Spiritual Coordinator Lebogang Pitso-Maredi said it is important to work together with these ex-convicts so that they can be integrated back into society.
She said: “Some of them face many challenges when they come back from prison and get depressed.
“I help with counselling them and join them in their school talks as they try to shape the youth by using the word of God.”
Pitso-Maredi said pupils in schools are troubled as some come from child headed families and others parents are sick which are some of the reasons children sometimes fall into peer pressure.
Their team wants to help these children to change for the better.
