2 Jun 2012

SOUTH SUDAN / PRISON SEWING SKILLS

Female inmates at the Juba Maximum Prison in South Sudan are learning sewing skills as part of a rehabilitative process and to provide skills once they are released from prison. UNMISS

Posted at: June 2, 2012 12:02 am

Duration: 03:09

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / WOMENS PRISON
TRT: 3:09
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / JUBA ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 24, 25 MAY 2012, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN

SHOTLIST:

24, 25 MAY 2012, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN

1. Various shots, walls of Juba's maximum prison
2. Close up, sign showing "Juba Prison Sewing Project"
3. Various shots, UN Peacekeeper and Prison officer marking material from a pattern
4. Various shots, clothes being marked
5. Wide shot, prison officer with inmates
6. Med shot, officer marking clothes
7. Med shot, UNMISS Peacekeeper cutting clothes
8. Wide shot, female prison officers and prisoners sewing some with machine and others by hand
9. Wide shot, two female prison officers and one prisoner at the far end
10. Various shots, sewing using sewing machine
11. Close up, feet pedaling on sewing machine
12. Wide shots, prison officers and prisoners sewing
13. Med shot, UNMISS Corrections Officer looking at work being done
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Agneta Johnson, Course Director, Swedish Prison and Probation Service
"This is going to be a permanent project, so that the women we are training here will in turn train their colleagues and the prisoners so that they can keep teaching more and more people how to do this and our goal is that –what we have committed to is to ensuring that each female prisoner in South Sudan will have two sets of prison outfits so that they have something to change."
15. Med shot, prisoners looking out of cell

MAY 25, 2012 JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN

16. Wide shot, graduation ceremony
17. Various shots, prison officers listening
18. Wide shot, prisoners receiving certificates
20. Various shots, prisoners sewing in machines as a demonstration to the Director of National Prisons Service in South Sudan, General Abel Wol
21. SOUNDBITE (Juba Arabic) Female prisoner:
"When I was out of the prison I was not able to do any work, but I am sure after I get out of the prison I can be able to do something which the government can benefit from."
22. Pan left, prison uniforms hanging
23. Wide shots, uniforms hanging
24. SOUNDBITE (English) General Abel Wol, Director of National Prisons Service in South Sudan:
"This is an important project for women who are vulnerable in the society. Once they get training here and they get the skills then they will go back to the community they will be serving their people, they will be earning some living for themselves and their families."
25. Wide shot, prisoners, prison officers and course instructors posing for a group photo

STORYLINE:

This is Juba Maximum Prison where some of South Sudan's worst offenders have been put behind bars. Some of the prisoners are on death-row, others are serving short or long sentences – while others have been remanded and are awaiting judgment on alleged crimes.
The prison houses both male and female inmates.

Some of the female prisoners have gotten a lucky break. They have been undergoing a week-long training on sewing skills, where they learn hands on how to cut clothe from patterns and at the same time also sew both either by hand or machine.

Three inmates and nine prison officers are stitching each clothe under a program funded by the Swedish Prison and Probation Service under the auspices of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan's (UNMISS's) Corrections and Advisory Section and the National Prison Service of South Sudan.

Participants receive instructions on the use of a sewing needle, the threading of a sewing machine and the making of a dress based on a pattern. Two Swedish prison and probation officers who came to the South Sudanese capital specifically to offer the training have been at hand training the participants who will eventually train other inmates and officers.

SOUNDBITE (English) Agneta Johnson, Course Director, Swedish Prison and Probation Service:
"This is going to be a permanent project, so that the women we are training here will in turn train their colleagues and the prisoners so that they can keep teaching more and more people how to do this and our goal is that – what we have committed to is to ensuring that each female prisoner in South Sudan will have two sets of prison outfits so that they have something to change."

Other than picking up a new skill, the course is aimed at enabling the learners sew 800 women prisoner uniforms two of which will be distributed to each female inmate across the nation.
The students are glad and enthusiastic that this new-found skill will benefit them into their future.

SOUNDBITE (Juba Arabic) Female Prisoner:
"When I was out of the prison I was not able to do any work, but I am sure after I get out of the prison I can be able to do something which the government can benefit from."

As part of the project, the National Prison Service renovated and dedicated a room in the prison as a workshop. 
National Prisons Service of South Sudan Director General Lt. Gen. Abel MakoiWol said that the training would advance the rights of the female prisoners, who often number among the most vulnerable members of society.

SOUNDBITE (English) General Abel Wol, Director of National Prisons Service in South Sudan:
"This is an important project for women who are vulnerable in the society. Once they get training here and they get the skills then they will go back to the community they will be serving their people, they will be earning some living for themselves and their families."

The initiative is the fruit of a project started by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2009 when it donated sewing machines to prisons in Juba, Bor, Wau and Malakal. To date, the UNODC has donated a total of 13 sewing machines to those facilities.

Prison officials hope that the trainees will produce uniforms for male prisoners and repair uniforms for all inmates and prison staff.

And as the sewing initiative gains strength with the hope of rehabilitating those imprisoned in a country where finding jobs may be difficult –chances are also that the crime rate for repeat offenders could be drastically reduced.