Food For The Poor Frees Another Group of Nonviolent Offenders for Christmas
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Dec. 23, 2015) With Christmas only two days away, Food For The Poor has secured the release of another 45 nonviolent offenders from prisons in northern Haiti. In Fort-Liberté, 23 men and one woman were liberated, 15 people, which included a mother and daughter, were freed in Port-de-Paix, and six more in Grande Rivière.
“It is a Food For The Poor tradition to release nonviolent inmates twice a year, during the Easter and Christmas season. The Prison Ministry Program is based on scripture, “When did we see You sick or in prison, and visit You?” (Matthew 25:39). We do this because we’re following Jesus’ example in the Gospels – it is the right thing to do,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor.
Earlier this week, 120 nonviolent offenders in Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Jamaica were released from their cells when their fines were paid by Food For The Poor. Today’s freeing of the 45 men and women in northern Haiti, brings the total to 165 nonviolent offenders, who will be home for Christmas. Many had been incarcerated for several years because of their inability to pay their country’s required fines.
Since the inception of Food For The Poor’s Prison Ministry Program in 1998, the charity has assisted in freeing, training and reintroducing nonviolent prisoners back into their communities as productive citizens.
“Many of these people are sent away to prison for stealing to buy food to feed themselves and their families. Putting these people who have committed nonviolent crimes in the same cells with rapists, murderers and hard-core criminals isn’t the answer,” said Mahfood.
To support Food For The Poor’s Prison Ministry Program, checks payable to Food For The Poor can be mailed to 6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, Fla. 33073. Please include reference number “SC# 74122″ to ensure your donation is correctly routed.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Wanda Wright
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
[email protected]