Deputy Prime Minister and Member for Lae, John Rosso, has maintained his tradition of visiting inmates, Correctional Service officers and their families at the Buimo Correctional Institute.
Yesterday, he spent the whole day engaging with the community at Buimo, shared Christmas gifts with over 830 inmates, 130 CS officers and their families, and kicked off a soccer game between male prisoners.
DPM Rosso has been visiting Buimo every Christmas for over 20 years, saying it has always been a special experience for him.
“It’s a very special thing for me because planti blo yumi, yumi raun – me included – wanpla taim bai yumi end up lo haus sik o wanpla taim bai yumi end up lo haus karabus.
“Na displa taim yumi go, the whole world looks upon us as if yumi ol rong lain.
“But em ples blo go na fiksim problem, em ples blo go kisim skul, ples blo go kisim punishment, rehabilitation, ples blo go kisim gutpla tingting.
“And then we pay for our crimes and we come out and try to become better citizens in our society.
“Planti taim we are labeled very wrongly for some things that we did.”
DPM Rosso said this is why every Christmas, he makes time available to visit Buimo and interact with the inmates, CS personnel and their families as well.
“Not only the prisoners but with the warders too. You do a tireless job, you don’t get thanked, you don’t get appreciated. You stand in the rain and at night.
“The CIS is always, probably the last department that gets funding.
“So I try to spend a little bit of my time to come here, and then I spend a little bit of time to go to my village and sit with my relatives.”
Meantime, the inmates will also be receiving 1,000 towels and blankets, five new flat screen TVs, K10,000 worth of medicine supplies for their clinic and a brand new standby generator to be delivered to them by January.
This is on top of the food, sports equipment, musical instruments for the prison band and bicycles for the inmates’ children that the DPM and his team from the Lae City Authority brought over.