The Yellow Ribbon Project is a community engagement and rehabilitation program hosted by the Singapore Prisons to enable prisoners to return to community and reduce the recidivism rate of these prisoners, who are mainly drug-related offenders in Singapore. Annually, it hosts the Yellow Ribbon Run, to enable the community to enter its bowels and to appreciate the work being done, and to show solidarity with the fate and well-being of the returning prisoner into society. This year’s Run was held on 17 September 2017.

The volunteers of the Sri Ramar Temple at Changi Village

The ‘captive’ runners from Pertapis Movers

The appeal from the Maranatha Presbyterians

Walking along the barbed route

Yellow as far as the eye can see

Walking to a different beat – the young companions

The Prison that wasn’t – empty fields in Changi Prison Complex

The Third Prison – Portaloo

The Rehabilitation Tent

A Wall of Hope and Freedom

LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM
Refrain
It’s a long road to freedom, a’winding steep and high.
But when you walk in love with the wind on your wing
and cover the earth with the songs you sing, the miles fly by.
Verses
I walked one morning by the sea,
and all the waves reached out to me.
I took their tears, then let them be. Refrain
I walked one morning at the dawn,
when bits of night still lingered on.
I sought my star, but it was gone. Refrain
I walked one morning with a friend,
and prayed the day would never end.
The years have flown, so why pretend. Refrain
I walked one morning with my King,
and all my winters turned to spring.
Yet every moment held its sting. Refrain

Words and music: Miriam Therese Winter
© Medical Mission Sisters 1966, 2003

(Lumix GX85, G Vario 14-140mm)