An insertion opportunity for women deprived of liberty

“Once I took a course on Infocap which is inside the jail, where they taught us gastronomy. But I couldn't follow a recipe, because I couldn't read. In other words, I didn't understand what I was reading and it was hard for me to write. I began to realize that I needed to learn the most basic things as a person, because they discriminated against me in some way and I noticed that," he recalls. Rosario Triviño, who was deprived of liberty in the San Joaquín Women's Penitentiary Center, and was the first woman to graduate from a career supported by the Woman Stand Up Foundation y TELEDUC, an initiative of the UC that seeks to allow detained women to study.

Rosario set out to study and took three courses in one, then she took the PSU. “I didn't get such an excellent score, but I was able to understand and respond, that was a good experience,” she commented, adding that she got a free scholarship. They asked her if she wanted to study and she agreed: "They offered me to continue Nurse technician. "Do you take it or leave it?", they asked me, "I take it", I answered. On Monday I went to enroll at Duoc UC and on Tuesday I already had to go study, I didn't even have time to assimilate it”.

Despite the difficulties at the beginning of her career, such as the stigma of having been in jail, being excluded from her classes, living in a context of social outbreak and subsequent pandemic, Rosario kept going. "In the path I fell in love with the career and now I am in love with this profession. Also, that I have character and am inquisitive. She asked the patients: What happened to you, what remedy do you take and why do you take that remedy…? I am like a very intrusive and copuchenta. So this profession is like a ring on my finger”, she declares, adding that education is important and changed her life. “It is a weapon, because you can talk with foundations, you don't talk about ignorance. I feel super strengthened as a woman. Somehow, you look at yourself and discover yourself. I discovered myself”.

education in freedom

The congratulations and applause for Rosario at her graduation did not wait, as soon as she entered the Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering at the San Joaquín Campus, together with Sister Nelly León, president of Fundación Mujer Levántate, they awaited her, with considerable emotion, on Dean Rodrigo Figueroa and the professor of the same faculty, Eugenio Bobenrieth; former dean and academic of the Faculty of Education Lorraine medina; the director of inclusion Catalina Garcia; Lilian Canales, from the Faculty of Social Sciences; Leyla Darras, coordinator of Solidarity at Pastoral UC; and José Luis Mojica, Rosario's tutor and graduate of Commercial Engineering.

The academics applied the project to the competition of the Research Vice Presidency y UC PastoralThanks to this initiative, they created gardens in the "Catholic courtyard" of the prison, where they met Sister Nelly; They held workshops where they taught the inmates about medicinal plants and some uses. From there, they outlined the idea of ​​supporting the training process of the inmates.

For this reason, they invited to participate in this project the then Dean of Education, Lorena Medina. “We thought of a proposal for work and educational support, we created the name TELEDUC (In Freedom of Education) and we convened instances of the Faculty that could contribute to this task. That was how we linked to the recently created Network Learn of the Faculty, coordinated by Professor Olga Espinoza and made up of student and academic volunteers; as well as our UC CENTER, in order to offer advanced scholarships to teachers from the Santa María Eufrasia High School”, says the academic. They also added the former dean of Social Sciences, Eduardo Valenzuela, who appointed Lilian Canales as representative of his Faculty, invited the UC Pre-University, the Directorate of Inclusion and Pastoral. Together they presented the project to the Chancellor Ignacio Sanchez, who supported it with financing for its initial operation.

thirteen students

Rosario's achievement is not just a personal satisfaction. According to the academic Lorena Medina, the fact that she has achieved it is a sign for the inmates who want to change her life, project it and insert herself socially. Today there are thirteen women who are studying professional technical careers and three of them will soon graduate.

Currently the project seeks to strengthen itself and continue to grow so that more women have the possibility of leveling their studies and pursuing a career. For this, as Lorena Medina explains, "it requires inter-institutional synergies, support, academic and psychosocial accompaniment, and stable structures in the program that are shown to constitute an organization, a community of support through which they can channel their desires and place their trust, often damaged by their vital experience" and ends by saying that "Education is a powerful and liberating vehicle, which, when properly conducted, should contribute to the development of greater autonomy and a present and future project that promotes relevant change in their lives”.

Source: An insertion opportunity for women deprived of liberty – Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile