The third edition of the Human Development workshop in Buenos Aires prisons comes to an end.
Every Thursday, since March, virtual workshops on Human Development have been held in which more than 300 people deprived of liberty and located in the prisons of Buenos Aires have participated. The workshops have been guided by volunteers from “Silo’s Message” and have worked on various topics such as experiences of contact with oneself, the principles of valid action, the development of one’s virtues, the recognition of situations of injustice, fear, error, repetition, failures….
Myths from different cultures were read, poems were recited, texts on meditation, meaning, inner energy, models, and internal states were analysed, and ceremonies and requests for the wellbeing of the participants and their loved ones were performed. All this work has allowed a sincere and profound exchange of fundamental themes such as overcoming suffering and finding a purpose that gives meaning to our lives.
For the participants, it has been a very enriching experience. Julio, one of the participants summarised his experience with the following testimony: “During this year we have learned many things, important values that perhaps we had not taken into account at other times in our lives, we have been able to deepen the different experiences we have lived, in our relationships with family, friends and ourselves, we have learned to reconcile with others and with ourselves. All this work has allowed us to advance enormously.
My friend Franco tells us: “I started the human development workshop in 2022, at first I went out of curiosity, to look around, but after that, I was hooked, because it helped me to know myself, to learn to listen, to have empathy for my companions, it gave me a lot of tools to be able to communicate with others. It also helped me in the family context to be able to have a conversation and to learn to listen, to reflect, to look for the good things in one, interior, and to correct the things I was wrong about. Thanks to this workshop, a spark was ignited in me and I wanted to pass it on to my colleagues. The children who are in the context of confinement have not always had the opportunity to study primary school and as a result of what I discovered the first year I did the workshop, I started to train my classmates, to pass on the knowledge that I had been acquiring. This year I have been very satisfied, as I have been able to see the responsibility of my classmates and the effort they made”.
All of them are very grateful to the whole team that coordinated the workshops.
