Some offenders at the Divundu Correctional Facility in the Kavango East Region say the educational programmes on offer have given them a new lease on life.

The Divundu Correction Facility is not a place where inmates allow themselves to remain idle.

If they are not busy in the bakery, then they are working in the garden or learning some new skill.

There are a variety of rehabilitation programmes to choose from, but not all the inmates are literate, and this is where the educational programmes come in.

Education Services Head of Divundu Correctional Facility, Senior Superintendent Erastus Iita, said, "We had one offender who came here illiterate. He didn't even know how to hold a pen, but after three years with us, he was able to write and to speak fluently."

Once inmates have completed their three-year functional literacy programme, they are promoted to Adult Upper Primary.

This includes subjects like business management or entrepreneurship, preparing them for life outside these four walls.

Enock Mubita, an offender at Divundu Correctional Facility, said, "The time I was coming here, I didn't even know how to speak, but now I'm trying. I can communicate with someone. Our teachers, they are trying to teach us how we can talk so we can survive when we go anywhere."

Danie Gamaseb said, "When I came here, my English was weak. They sent me to literacy classes. Now I understand some words. I can see something there, and I can write it. At the class we learn to speak English and also multiply. To calculate our money."

Both Mubita and Gamaseb have experience working in the correctional facility garden.

Coupled with the educational lessons, the two say they have an idea of what they will do once released.

Some inmates say being incarcerated has definitely changed their perspective on life.

The Divundu Correctional Facility's primary purpose is to produce agricultural products and to provide meaningful training to inmates in an effort to enhance their employment opportunities upon release.