POINTE BLANCHE – On Friday, June 23, 40 inmates of the Pointe Blanche Prison received their certificates for the various courses they followed and successfully completed during a graduation ceremony held at the facility.
Certificates were awarded to the graduates in the fields of Music, Christian education, preparations for GED, Mathematics, Computer classes and the English and Dutch languages.
Among the invited guests were: Minister of Justice Rafael Boasman; representing the Minister of Education was Shermina Powell; members of the commission of supervision of the prison Johannes Schols, Ludwina Hodge and Wilfred Manning; coordinator of education at the Miss Lalie Center Lenrich Wilson; and Public Relations Officer for the Minister of Justice Fernando Clark.
The ceremony started at 9:30am with an opening prayer by Reverend Elfreda Lake followed by words of welcome and inspiration to the graduates by Prison Directors Steven Carty and Wilfred Williams.
Minister Boasman addressed the graduates, urging them to make the right choices in life. The Minister pointed out that he too made choices in life, some good and some not so good, and had to live with the consequences. He encouraged the graduates to look towards the future and not to linger on the negative choices made in the past.
Before receiving their certificates, some of the graduates displayed their talents with poetry, a musical performance and a display of projects learned in computer classes.
Together with the representative of the Minister of Education and the Prison Directors, the proud instructors handed out the certificate for the subjects they covered to the graduates.
The team of seven external instructors at the prison consists of Reverend Lake, Hollis Bernard, Oswald Francis, Joan Sharplis, Vernon Illidge, Sheena Romney, and Julian Grill, while Leo de Windt and Les Brown served as the prison’s internal instructors. The instructors are supported by mentors H.A. Concincion, S. Williams and S. Janga.
Before ending the official part of the ceremony, the vote of thanks was delivered by one of the graduating inmates, who recited two of his poems, which had the attendees in awe.
The ceremony was followed by snacks and drinks.
