A Life Beyond Iron Bars is a unique Project from the Faculty of Theology, North-West University as a community engagement programme which runs at the Potchefstroom Remand Detention Facility. Pastoral students are involved and engaged with their lecturer and Management at the prison through excursions and doing Pastoral Counselling with themes such as resilience; time management; the concept of fathering; values and character-building; relationships, etc. The project indulges to change negative behaviour in our communities by pointing out to fathers what to do and how to eliminate negative behaviour, bad and destructive values and wrong choices.
What skills and resources were you able to draw from the community for this project?
Lived experiences, mentors and mentoring skills, examples, venues, knowledge, valuable information, marketing strategies, manuals, media, etc.
The challenges
The Project: A Life Beyond Iron Bars aims to address father absenteeism, the neglect of children and family dilemmas. The project also aims to address the essential role of the father within a family context and build better relationships in families through the leadership of the mother and father. Furthermore, the project focused on the whole concept of fathering, mentoring, values and guidelines on how to be an involved father figure. Inmates (fathers) are mobilized through training and equipping sessions, workshops, seminars, conferences, symposiums, etc. This project makes provision for men/fathers who want to become knowledgeable to impact families in communities and societies. Creating platforms for fathers through knowledge, experience, family issues and through an example life in the most challenging circumstances.
Addressing the challenges
The Project made a difference and succeeded to trained and equipped more than 800 inmates (fathers) at the Potchefstroom Remand Detention Facility. Due to this project the presenter and compiler (Prof FE Freeks) received an award for the best fatherhood programme in Potchefstroom. An academic book chapter was written and published through this project. A strong consideration from the Faculty of Theology was that the project should be designed in a short course for academic students. The project makes provision and succeeded as part of the curriculum in one of the courses of the Faculty. It creates the opportunity for Pastoral Students to be part and to collaborate with external institutions with regard to Community Engagement. Furthermore, the presenter of this project also succeeded to utilize his book on fatherhood namely, Dad is Destiny: the man God created to be, together with the manual of the project to conform, transform and help inmates through mentoring to be the best they can be, and also strive to re-unite inmates and society. Ethical approval still needs to be done in order to do research to measure the impact and influence of the Fatherhood Training and Equipping Programme with its Project: Life Beyond Iron Bars. Research is paramount to the presenter in order to come up with good, better, effective, efficient, sustainable and modern results.
The achievements
Through this Fatherhood Training and Equipping Project I received an award from the North-West University on the 27th October 2017 for the best Fatherhood Training and Equipping Programme in the Potchefstroom Area. I also received an award from Banna Ba Kae? (Where are the men?) on International Men's Day & Banna Ba Kae Awards on the 19th November 2015. Certificates for outstanding contribution from FAMSA was granted to me on the 08th of March 2016 and 13th December 2016 with regard to the Fatherhood Training and Equipping Project. The Project succeeded to be an opportunity to other inmates (fathers) in other prisons in South Africa. The Project made an impact and changes a lot of lives of inmates who are on parole or released from prison. Most of them re-settled with their families, others got married, others are examples, and go to the prison to tell, teach and help their other fellow inmates to change their lives and to make the best of it. Forgiving, reconciliation, uniting inmates with their families and directing inmates (fathers) to attend a church as well as the collaboration with Pastoral Students from the Faculty of Theology, North-West University in this project are the greatest achievements of this Project.
Johannesburg, South Africa