{"id":16679,"date":"2019-12-05T16:38:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T16:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=16679"},"modified":"2019-12-05T16:38:01","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T16:38:01","slug":"gerald-amenyos-goliath-conquering-rejection-in-prison-by-writing-a-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2019\/12\/05\/gerald-amenyos-goliath-conquering-rejection-in-prison-by-writing-a-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerald Amenyo\u2019s Goliath: Conquering rejection in prison by writing a book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gerald Amenyo is focused, as though he\u2019s in a trance sitting at the high table; absorbed by his surroundings that make up the solemn atmosphere of the church auditorium at the Ghana Prisons Service Headquarters.<\/p>\n

He is short in stature and could easily get lost in a crowd.<\/p>\n

But on the day of the launch of his book, Not Rejection but Direction, <\/i>he stood out and wore the inmate badge of honour proudly.<\/p>\n

\"Prisoner
\nThe book which has been dubbed historic is the first faith-based book to be written in prison by someone who is yet to complete a major part of their sentence.<\/p>\n

Gerald catalogues episodes of the typical prisoner lifestyle in his perspective, from arrival to the latest years he has so far spent in Nsawam Medium Security Prison. The chapters take you on an unrestrained emotional journey through all his stages of managing life in prison.<\/p>\n

The inspiration for the book and its title come\u00a0from the times he felt rejected by his family when he felt alone in confinement and just when he was about to give up on life, he reveals.<\/p>\n

Life in prison he says has been tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was convicted at a prison in Ho, in the Volta Region and after my conviction I was brought to Nsawam Medium Security Prison and that is so far from my family,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not been seeing or hearing from my family. There is no visiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I wet my pillow in tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerald didn\u2019t think he would be in prison at a young age and neither did he think he would be sentenced to 20 years for robbery. He also didn\u2019t think he would be the author of a book written from within the walls of one of Ghana\u2019s roughest prisons.<\/p>\n

But listening to the repetitive one lyric of an original song ministered by the Nsawam prison choir, \u2018If I didn\u2019t go to prison, I wouldn\u2019t know God will use me,\u2019 makes me believe otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"Prisoner<\/p>\n

Gerald commands himself like a king. Some could say he is indeed a living testimony of not succumbing to the perils and troubles of life in this world.<\/p>\n

Coming from a poor family, he took the hustler\u2019s route to solving life\u2019s problems that afflicted him and his family. He admits that some calamitous decisions led him to prison though while in prison, he found hope in the Lord.<\/p>\n

With the awful times behind him, and 11 years left to go, he says the Lord has directed him to use his story to inspire his fellow brothers and sisters in and out of prison.<\/p>\n

Ropheka Foundation, an NGO which works with orphans, the aged and prisoners providing them with life essentials to keep up with basic needs including healthcare, met Gerald on a visit to Nsawam Prison and has since worked together and helped him produce the book.<\/p>\n

\"Prisoner<\/p>\n

The Chief Executive Officer of the NGO, Dr Mary Osei\u00a0is forever proud of Gerald\u2019s achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has transformed his life,\u201d she says, declaring his testimony.<\/p>\n

She says as a result of Gerald\u2019s book, inmates are acting on good behaviour in hopes that they too can get an opportunity like Gerald.<\/p>\n

Gerald shares that, to write the book though, he had to use a torchlight to jot down thoughts at night because during the day it was too busy to pen down anything and at night, there is no electricity.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe first copy of the book was auctioned at GH\u00a22,000<\/b><\/p>\n

Superintendent Courage Atsem who is the Chief Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prison Service, also praised Gerald for persevering\u00a0through to produce his story in long-form.<\/p>\n

He believes that Gerald is the personification of a lot of \u2018precious souls\u2019 as Gerald puts it himself, in the prisons who have talents abounding and ask hand in hand with Dr Osei and Gerald, for government, other NGOs to look at some of the prisoners and give them a second chance whether in prison or upon release.<\/p>\n

He also believes Gerald is a role model for his fellow inmates.<\/p>\n

Gerald\u2019s story will inspire you. A copy of the book is going for GH\u00a230 and can be bought from Ropheka Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gerald Amenyo is focused, as though he\u2019s in a trance sitting at the high table; absorbed by his surroundings that make up the solemn atmosphere of the church auditorium at the Ghana Prisons Service Headquarters. He is short in stature and could easily get lost in a crowd. But on the day of the launch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[9951,2701,8924,1350,6537,11282,9560,9171,5800,5455,4816,192,1445,2264,4202,10248,10634,11137,7806,11011,5094,11973,10917,8306,4817,11926,4671,6431,12751,4818,5655,11307,6808,11634,1808,3954,36,594,5140],"class_list":["post-16679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-age","tag-behaviour","tag-chance","tag-ceo","tag-church","tag-convicted","tag-conviction","tag-crowd","tag-electricity","tag-family","tag-gerald-amenyo","tag-ghana","tag-god","tag-government","tag-ho","tag-inmates","tag-lost","tag-make-up","tag-model","tag-nsawam","tag-nsawam-prison","tag-one","tag-poor","tag-prison","tag-prison-sentence","tag-prisoners","tag-prisons-service","tag-release","tag-robbery","tag-ropheka-foundation","tag-security","tag-sentence","tag-shares","tag-volta","tag-volta-region","tag-will","tag-world","tag-who","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}