“Life was never easy for me. I’ve passed a sorrowful, painful, neglected and panic through my life. Having been sentenced to suffer death and later pardoned to life imprisonment by the president of which I’m currently serving has made me ask myself a one million dollar question. Why me?”
Full letter
Mistakenly caught and brought in prison of a crime that I never committed. At a tender age with a confused mind of a young teenager. Life has never easy for me. I’ve passed a sorrowful, painful, neglected and panic through my life. Having been sentenced to suffer death and later pardoned to life imprisonment by the president of which I’m currently serving has made me ask myself a one million dollar question. Why me? It has made me to be so ambivalent.
I’ve received formal education in prison and undergone various rehabilitation programmes but still I lacked something. It was not until Dr Inma came into my life, and after taking the mindful leadership program seriously, I knew who I am, why I’m where I am and where am I going. And amazingly enough, I celebrated my birthday on 2nd January, that was after 17 years in prison. After addressing a gathering of prisoners and prison staff, the officer in charge Mr Patrick elevated me to another level of a trustee. I now realise that I’m a mindful leader.
This training has changed my life and that of my family too at home. Why am I saying this? I have a brother who have two children and a pregnant wife. This brother had a good job and looked after his family well. He lost his job for some reasons and was unable to support his family. He could not cater for the needs at home neither pay school fees for his children, rent was a mess and so on an so forth. In the process, he got confused. Adding confusion to his already confused minds, he started drinking alcohol. He became desperate and started selling house items and spends the money.
The situation worsened whereby he tried to poison his family to end their lives and commit suicide for he had lost hope in life. The intervention of other families and neighbours solved the situation and the children were taken to hospital. So he decided to chase his family away and live all by himself. My Sister paid a visit and narrated the whole story to me. Soon there was a parental visiting whereby the officer in charge arranged prisoners to be visited by their families. My Sister was forced to come with my Brother. After a very long talk, I introduced him to mindfulness programme. I gave him a photocopy of the hand sheet and portfolios. He stopped drinking and eventually re-united back with his family. So far he has managed to fight stress, to relieve himself from hunger. What he should do when he is ambivalent or uncertainty. I can say that my Brother is a hero because he’s a mindful leader. He thanks Inma through her teachings for saving his life. He is now a happy fellow.
How I wished this programme would spread wings and becomes a role model of this nation. I pray to Sister Inma and her family a happy life.