Cameroon: Buea Central Prisons – Inmates’ Children Offered Christmas Gifts

Children of inmates incarcerated at the Buea Central Prison on Tuesday December 21, 2021 celebrated Christmas in a ceremony called Angel Tree organised by the Justice and Equity Prison Fellowship Cameroon (JEPFC). The event at the courtyard of the Buea Central Prison saw the children staged Christmas carols and sketches. The children enjoyed a common meal with the officials before being shared balloons, candies and toys etc. There were 103 of them drawn from Fako Division with each returning home with a bag loaded with rice, soap and vegetable oil.

Nana Abunaw Marie, President and Founder of JEPFC, said the event was to put smiles on the faces of prisoners’ children. That the children have been ostracised and stigmatised because one or both parents are in prison. And the children seem stranded with no gift at Christmas. Reasons they organised the Christmas fête to put smiles on the faces of the children. “This is the time we come to their lives and make them feel that they are not left out of Christmas celebration despite the fact that their parents are in prison,” Nana Abunaw told the press. It was also an opportunity whereby many inmates were reunited to their families after many years.

One of the children (name withheld) in lamentation recounted how sad it had been for him to be without his father for three years in the absence of his mother who journeyed to the Great Beyond. That he was so closed to his father but is now forced by circumstances to be staying with his grandmother. Another child (name withheld) burst into tears after seeing her brother whom they had been separated for a long time. However, the children expressed gratitude to JEPFC for reuniting them with their relatives, for the Christmas gifts and food items.

By Cameroon Tribune.