Minister moving to Malawi

Toledo pastor headed for Africa to start prison farm project

"We gave them the poison. Now we have to give them the antidote," said the Rev. Yong-jin Kim.

A Toledo pastor with a doctorate in criminal justice, Mr. Kim is working to alleviate the squalid conditions in many African prisons, which he said are the result of the well-intentioned, but failed, concept of modern prisons given to the world by American Christians less than 200 years ago.

The first modern penitentiary - where inmates were supposed to be penitent, or contrite, for their crimes and sins - was opened by Quakers near Philadelphia in 1825, Mr. Kim said.

Long before the advent of mass communication, the penitentiary concept caught on like wildfire, and within three decades had been copied by governments worldwide.

In Africa today, most prisoners are crammed into overcrowded cells, receive just one meal a day, are forced to labor without pay, and spend years behind bars without any programs designed to rehabilitate them.

"In Africa, prisoners are on the lowest rung of society. They are the lowest of the low," Mr. Kim said.

Mr. Kim, pastor of Hanmi Covenant Presbyterian Church in West Toledo, has initiated and is overseeing a number of programs in Malawi, Zambia, and Ghana that aim to improve the welfare of prisoners and, in the long run, possibly change the outlook and attitude of an entire continent.

Next month, Mr. Kim will move to Makonde, Malawi, a country of 13.6 million in southeastern Africa, to oversee the construction and operation of a new work-release prison for inmates with one year to go on their sentences.

The prison, to which inmates volunteer to go, will be run as a Christian ministry with prayer, Bible lessons, and other religious programs.

It also will include a program that is ground-breaking for Africa, in which the prisoners will grow crops and raise chickens and livestock.

The inmates will not only be learning a trade they can use after their release, but half of the crops will go to feed inmates who now receive a single bowl of maize-based gruel a day. The other half of the crops will be distributed to local orphanages, nursing homes, and hospitals.

The inmates will grow vegetables and maize and raise chickens, pigs, and cows, Mr. Kim said, with chickens eventually producing eggs that can be sold to pay for more prison programs and make the farm project self-sufficient.

Mr. Kim, who serves as director of the office of strategy project development for Prison Fellowship International, has been running several programs in Africa since 2002, all with the blessing of the local governments. Among the projects are the Sounds of Love recording studios where inmates translate the Bible and other books onto CDs, which are then distributed free to surrounding villages; a mediation program that keeps people out of prison for petty crimes and reduce the overcrowding problems, and a planned wheelchair-manufacturing facility.

The prison, set to open in October, is being built on a lush 300-acre site, formerly a coffee plantation, provided free by the Malawi government. It has a small river running through it and railroad tracks that will make it easy to transport crops and supplies.

But overseeing the projects long-distance has been difficult at times, so Mr. Kim decided that the most practical step is to move to Malawi, where he will live in a building adjacent to the prison for at least the next three years.

His wife and 7-year-old son will join him by the end of the year, he said, while his two grown children plan to stay in the United States.

"It's been too difficult trying to run the programs from here," Mr. Kim said. "Especially when there are problems or complications. And in Africa, there are always problems or complications."

Four men were hurt recently, for example, while knocking down an old wall in order to get bricks to use for the new prison. The injuries were not life-threatening, but Mr. Kim had to make emergency arrangements by phone with Malawi prison and hospital officials.

Another complication arose when government officials said they would close a school for 400 village children that meets on the grounds where the prison is being built, saying it would be too dangerous for the pupils. But the closing would have forced the students to walk more than four miles to a different school.

"I told them that was completely unacceptable, that we must find a way to keep the school open," Mr. Kim said.

The problem was resolved by building a wall that separates the school facilities from the prison itself. And, after the school closes each afternoon, prisoners will use the "educational wing" for Bible studies, literacy classes, lessons on how to be a good father, and other classes to help them become better citizens.

Mr. Kim's latest challenge is to raise enough money to pay each inmate $10 a month for working on the farm.

"That may not sound like much, but it is the equivalent of $400 a month in buying power in the United States," he said, adding that Malawi's Gross National Product is $170 per person compared to $35,000 in the United States.

The entire $10 "salary" will go to the inmates' families, giving them enough money to buy food for a month. It will be more likely that inmates will be warmly welcomed by their families upon their release, having been providers.

"Maybe for the first time in their married life, this son of a gun is making money," Mr. Kim said with a smile.

He believes such a program will not only turn around individuals and help families, but it could lead to a sea change in how Africans feel about themselves.

"There is a mentality among Africans that blames Americans and Europeans for all their problems, blaming everything on colonialism," Mr. Kim said. "We want to break that pattern of thinking."

The Makonde Prison farm project will be closely watched by government officials in Malawi and other African nations, and if it succeeds, the concept could spread across the continent, Mr. Kim said. He already has plans for three more in Malawi.

Unlike the attention that rock stars such as Madonna and Bono get when they go to Africa, Mr. Kim said his programs are "very small-time, very grass-roots."

The Rev. David Bayly, pastor of Christ the Word Presbyterian Church in Toledo, called Mr. Kim's Malawi prison farm "intriguing and worthy."

"I asked him to come to speak to our church about it," he said.

Mr. Kim is asking Christ the Word's youth group, which consists of students from junior high through college age, to sponsor an inmate's $10 monthly salary.

Mr. Bayly said he tell the youths that he supports Mr. Kim's African project, "but whether or not they give to it will be up to them."