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EDUCATION: Prisoners unpack books for library

CHARITY FOUNDER Alexander McClean is a young man in a million. The 24-year-old law graduate and magistrate is director general of the African Prisons Project, which he founded in 2004 due to his groundbreaking work improving the lives of inmates in Africa.

Six years ago, McClean, who is a Christian, wanted to do voluntary work prior to starting a law degree at Nottingham University, and travelled to a hospice in Kampala, Uganda, he had read about in a newspaper.

Whilst there, he accompanied staff to Mulago, Kampala’s main hospital and was shocked by the conditions.

McClean spoke to a man lying on a bin bag in his urine, whose flesh was rotting, and saw sick prisoners handcuffed to their beds.

He shared what he had seen with Dr Ann Merriman a former nun, who ran the hospice. She told him to visit the patients, wash, feed and pray for them.

McClean did as she advised, spending three months at the hospital.

“I would argue with a lot of people so that I could get better treatment for the patients. People would say that they could see Jesus in me. I think I felt challenged by the apathy I saw there,” he said.

He asked to visit a prison sick ward and was taken to Uganda’s largest prison, Luzira Upper Prison, situated on the outskirts of Kampala.

Originally built by the British for 600 prisoners, it housed 2,400. There were open sewers, teenagers on death row, and sick inmates were treated in appalling conditions, receiving neither adequate care or food.

HIV/AIDs and gang rape were also major problems.

Moved and determined to make a difference, upon his return to the UK, McClean told his church, the New Testament Assembly in Tooting, south London, friends and family what he had seen and appealed for their support.

They gave him money and clothes, and on his return to Luzira he refurbished the sick ward with the help of the inmates and named it after his grandmother, Aileen Lily Chappel.

Following the refurbishment, McClean asked inmates if they would like anything else – the told him they wanted an education. He collected over 30,000 books and money, and opened a prison library.

McClean has visited prisons in other African countries, including Sierra Leone, where he helped set up a farm so inmates could grow their own food, and Kenya where he set up a library.

He has also visited prisons in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe and is keen to play a part in improving inmates’ access to justice.

Whilst doing much of his work, McClean was also studying for his degree.

His efforts have not gone unrewarded; he has received numerous awards, including Charity Volunteer of the Year in 2006 and the Beacon Prize for Young Philanthropy in 2007.

McClean has suffered for his passion, including contracting malaria, but he remains committed to improving the lives of prisoners.

African Prisons Project offices are based in Uganda, and he spends three weeks in every month out there. The organisation also provides volunteering opportunities for people who want to make a difference.

McClean is currently studying for a PhD looking at the death penalty in Africa, so he can provide legal representation to African prisoners.

He told Soul Stirrings: “Often my staff see people being beaten, hear them screaming and crying but can’t do anything because we’d be removed from the prison as a security risk. However, my faith gives me dignity, courage and the ability to carry on when things seem overwhelming.”

* For more information visit www.africanprisons.org

Published: 09 November 2009
Issue: 1397

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