2017
Book Donation to the St Alban’s Correctional Facility
In a joint effort with the Rotary Club of Jeffreys Bay, Inside-out organised the donation of 500 books to the education staff of the St Alban’s Correctional Facility in Port Elizabeth. Though the majority of the books were sourced from the Humanitarian Centre in Bedfordview, the remaining books were bought from market stalls and donated by private individuals, which totalled nearly half of the donation. This noteworthy contribution even made the news!
Father’s Day Event at Zonderwater
Last week Inside-Out, together with the Fatherhood Support Group at the Zonderwater Correctional Centre, celebrated Father’s Day by facilitating an event that spoke to the importance of the support group and the effect it has had on the lives of members, as well as on their children on the “outside”. Many touching stories were shared by the fathers, confirming that the work done by the men and their social work team is an invaluable contribution to the establishment, and maintenance of healthy paternal relationships with their families.
Inside-Out Symposium at 5th SASPC 2017
On the 29th and 30th of June Unisa hosted the 5th South African Students’ Psychology Conference, a biennial platform that affords students from across Africa, and indeed the globe, an opportunity to participate as active contributors to the discipline of psychology. We, as Inside-out, were pleased to be involved in the event by hosting a day long symposium, where all things related to corrections were discussed. This included updates on the latest corrections related research conducted by our members and on the group activities including the Fatherhood and Books projects. We also hosted a Roundtable discussion on Ethical Considerations in corrections research and were honoured to be joined by Derrick Thulane Ndlovu from Zonk’izizwe Odds Development and Zamani Ndlovu from YipSA, who provided invaluable feedback on NGO’s involvement in the corrections environment.
2017 Mid-Year Report on the Inside-out Outside-in Books Project
Since its launch in early November of last year, the Inside-out Outside-in Books Project has gone from strength to strength, with the first six months of 2017 seeing the project receive numerous donations, modifying the cataloguing and distribution systems, event facilitation, and most importantly, providing close to a thousand books to Correctional Centres across South Africa. Read more about the Project, its donors and donations in the Books Project Mid-Year Report 2017.
Books Project Mid-Year Report 2017.pdf
Inside-out and Unisa Library’s Book Week
Inside-out team member Mbongiseni Mdakane joined the group from Unisa Library at the Losperfontein and Zonderwater Correctional Facilities this on Thursday and Friday to celebrate National Book Week. Pretoria News covered the event, which you can read in the following article on page 3
Teacher's Day 2017 - Celebrating the work done by the educators of St Albans
On the 6th of October, The Rotary Club of Jeffreys Bay, in partnership with the Inside-Out Outside-In Books Project, hosted a Teacher's Day to celebrate the hard work done by the educators of St Albans Correctional Services. That you to team members Jacqui Pirzenthal, for her tireless contributions and Mbongiseni Mdakane, for his talk regarding the significance of education for offenders.
Inside-Out End of Year Get Together
Inside-out took a moment last week to pause and reflect on a successful year, and to celebrate too! The year-end gathering included team members from Inside-out, Unisa and NGO’s, as well as correctional officers from the centres we have donated to during the year. A great time was had by all, with stories and experiences shared, some that are included in our Annual Report (to be made available shortly). A big thanks to everyone to attended and contributed to the day.
focus-2017_issue5.pdfEverything happens for a reason, including prison...
“I did introspection while I was there, asking myself why I was where I was; what was the meaning of my being in prison? You could say it was because of circumstances but you never know the real reason until a later stage. Only then can you say, ‘Ah, so this is why it happened’.” Read more on the inspirational story of one of our team members, Mbongiseni Mdakane, as covered by Clairwyn van der Merwe for Unisa enews.
Changing inmates’ lives forever
The formalisation of a fruitful and long-standing relationship—one that has produced thousands of graduates over decades—took place on 9 June 2017. Unisa and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to continue to provide tertiary education for inmates in South Africa’s correctional facilities.
Unisa celebrates National Book week behind bars
The book initiative in correctional centres is important for the Unisa Libraries as it contributes towards the sustainability of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Unisa and the Department of Correctional Services. The MoU aims to ensure support for inmates who want to pursue their studies. National Book Week is a successful annual reading campaign run by the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture.
Donation of Books for Youth Centre
Earlier this week Inside-out received a donation of over 300 books from Suzanne for the Youth Centre at Baviaanspoort. The books range from entry level readers to novels aimed at a young adult audience. We would like to thank Suzanne again for the generous donation!
Inside-out Student Placements
The team at Inside-out would just like to thank our two student placements, Thanda and Tanya, both psychology students registered in the Masters Research programme, for their tireless efforts contributed to the group. Who knew, back in 2016 when these two students met (in the photograph above) that they would make such a significant contribution to our Books Project, Wiki Page and the project as a whole…
Thanks again guys!
