A graduate's words: Johnson Omollo Solo

Johnson Omollo Solo spoke as a student of the Sexual Offence Treatment programme under Ustawi Network. He addressed the officer in charge, the staff, the guests, his fellow graduates, and the person he calls his mentor mother, Miss Jane.

What did the eleven modules change?

He said the journey began with a simple module on norm building, then moved through eleven modules: Norm Building; Treatment Responsibility and Understanding Your Sexual Offence; Understanding the Sexual Offences Act; Victim Empathy Enhancement; Cognitive Restructuring; Drug and Substance Abuse; Managing Sexual Deviant Arousal; Sexuality; Relationship and Interpersonal Skills; Emotion Management; and Relapse Management and Evaluation.

In his words, those courses transformed behaviour and redirected lives toward a better future. Graduates understand themselves better and know how to manage their lives responsibly. What began as a learning process became a graduation they had not expected.

How did the programme start for him?

He remembers the day it started. After the head-count bell, the men had breakfast and later gathered at the library. There he met a new face, someone he did not know would change his future. He thanked Jane Kuria for holding a place in her heart for the group and for standing by them, and he thanked the graduates who stayed with the course.

He told her that the impact cannot be measured. Coming to the facility was, for him, a blessing for the men in the room and for the future beyond the walls. He said the change will ripple far past the prison, and that what she imparted is more precious than gold because it does not perish.