2023-05-23 19:28:02
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — She begins to walk seriously, but as she walks down the red carpet, Julia Flores smiles and proudly shows off the blue blanket she knitted in her cell in a jail south of La Paz. Her ease draws the applause from her companions and then she is encouraged to move her typical skirt of the Andean indigenous people of Bolivia.
Flores, 64, has a long sentence and prefers not to mention what crime she committed, but assures that this does not prevent her from dreaming and fending for herself.
“My knitting has a bit of my history and helps me forget my imprisonment,” Flores, a mother of three, told The Associated Press.
The parade also serves to empower oneself as a woman, said Karen Rodríguez, a Colombian national. “It gives us a chance to dress up, to be us, and to break free on the runway,” she added.
Flores, Rodríguez and 20 other compañeras paraded the garments that they themselves created in the Obrajes women’s prison, which has a population of 215 inmates, to promote the products they made within the framework of the “Emprendiendo para ser libres” program. The plan is sponsored by local and international foundations and is applied in various national prisons.
“With this event they have the opportunity to earn their money and start something of their own,” explained Yana Rojas, project coordinator.
This is the second parade following the success of its first version last year.
Cheryl Sempertegui, director of the Obrajes center, indicated that the program seeks the inclusion of inmates through the activities they like the most.
Obrajes is a prison with a high number of inmates in preventive detention, something that the Penitentiary System seeks to reduce.
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