CHANGE - CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF CARE

As Namibia and the rest of the world grapple with the growing impact of crime, there is increasing recognition that the damage and disruption caused by crime cannot be mended by judicial, legal or correctional solutions alone.

In each country the relevant broad community must be involved as well as the prison community, offenders and personnel. The root cause of criminal behaviour is essentially moral and spiritual. Ultimately the prevention of crime and rehabilitation of persons in conflict with the law require a sweeping moral and spiritual change – a complete transformation of the values of individuals and society in general.

It is important for communities to realise that they have a role to play in the post-penitentiary rehabilitation of ex-offenders and accept them back to where they belong. Countries like Uganda, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden- to mention only a few have associations for discharged offenders which render assistance to ex-offenders and work closely with social welfare departments.

A former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Safety and Security has emphasised this aspect at numerous occasions and the following is quoted from a speech:

“Our endeavour in rehabilitation will be useless if we do not get more support from the public and society. There is a problem for the ex-offenders not being accepted after release. People tend to think that released prisoners have not changed and hence cannot be trusted and accepted. We still maintain the phraseology of “having a criminal record”, “jail bird” or he/she is given a second thought instead of a second chance. Consequently stigma and isolation are haunting this person and he/she can easily revert back into criminal behaviour falling into the trap of a vicious circle

If we do not have social actors like relatives, neighbours, friends, politicians, church leaders and non-governmental organisations- social rehabilitation initiatives are doomed to fail. We need the commitment of the community in moulding ex-offenders into good citizens again.

We need to cultivate a “Culture of Care”, really taking care of each other!”

For the above reason it was decided to establish an organisation to render effective support to ex-offenders in order to make it possible for them to be re-integrated into society as law abiding citizens, while simultaneously motivating the general public to accept them back into society by offering them work opportunities and acceptable standards of living.

This organisation, based on voluntary participation by members of the general public within Namibia is called CHANGE and we provide training to ex-offenders as well as other members of our communities.

Being committed to equality of opportunity and elimination of discrimination, CHANGE will strive to assist, wherever possible and in whichever way, the society and ex-offenders with efforts to re-integrate such ex-offenders into society and to assist ex-offenders to become contributing and law-abiding members of our community.

WE NEED TO CULTIVATE A “CULTURE OF CARE”, REALLY TAKING CARE OF EACH OTHER!

To contribute to the reduction of re-offending by assisting and motivating ex-offenders not to commit any type of crime again.

Assist offenders as well as ex-offenders by way of information and discussions on the negative effects recurring crime to the country and its citizens.
Providing assistance in reducing the dependency on alcohol, drugs and other dependence-providing substances.
Providing information on health-related issues such as HIV/Aids, sexually-transmitted diseases, tuberculoses, malaria and cancer.
Supervising ex-offenders and assisting them in their efforts to become law-abiding citizens.
Providing and/or facilitating separate programmes and/or specifically designed treatment programmes for juveniles.
Offering rehabilitation programmes or means to enter into such programmes.

To assist, and where necessary supervise, ex-offenders in their efforts to be re-integrated into society facilitating such as providing information on access and availability of employment or self-employment opportunities to offenders and other trainees of CHANGE.

Providing a positive environment which will assist ex-offenders to refrain from re-offending behaviour by obtaining information on possible employment opportunities from, among others, social instructions, labour consultants, governmental institutions, employment agencies and church institutions and by disseminating this information to offenders and/or ex-offenders.
Providing expert information to offenders, ex-offenders and other trainees on how to become self-employed.
Facilitating the involvement of families and friends of offenders and ex-offenders in order to ensure that they be treated with fairness, justice and respect and to obtain commitment from families and friends to assist the offenders and ex-offenders in their efforts to become law-abiding citizens.
Establishing and maintaining positive and constructive partnerships locally and internationally in order to establish or create new avenues and employment possibilities for ex-offenders and other trainees of CHANGE

To develop improved structures for liaison, including making use of the electronic and print media, with social institutions locally and abroad in order to gain insight on how other institutions have succeeded or failed and to continuously refine and improve the level of knowledge and research on the way in which ex-offenders can be successfully re-integrated into society.

Establishing and maintaining positive and constructive liaison and networking locally and internationally, also by way of electronic and print media as well as the internet, in order to obtain information on successful implementation of actions to re-integrate ex-offenders into society; and on measures taken by other institutions across the world which proved to have been unsuccessful and do not need to be repeated in Namibia.

To motivate and educate society on an on-going basis to give persons in conflict with the law an opportunity after having served a sentence and after having been subjected to correctional training by the authorities.
* Professionals in the field of rehabilitation observe that not every offender wants to enter into, or is capable of, a process of rehabilitation. CHANGE does not suggest that its methods are appropriate for every offender in all situations.

Establishing and disseminating information to the general public on the rights of persons in conflict with the law to become members of society after having served the sentence prescribed by judicial authorities.
Disseminating information on cases where re-integration has been reached in a satisfactory way. (Success stories to be widely published).
Inviting the general public to assist CHANGE’s activities by way of participation, funding, project supervision or any combination of these.
Informing the public on CHANGE’s activities and addressing them on issues such as crime, sentencing and imprisonment.