Watch the live video blog above, or catch the highlights below!
An Early Goodbye
One of the women who has been in our programs for 8 years is getting released in July! We talked a bit about her release today and how she’s really excited to go to her home, in the North of Peru, and see her daughter who is now 8 years old.
As we chatted, we both got a bit emotional about this being the last trip that I’ll see her. She did promise to find me on Facebook but, still, the sense of having of known someone for such a long time and knowing that you won’t see them regularly any more is bittersweet.
Also, she reminded me that she has a photo of me holding her daughter when she was 6 months old and living in the prison! That reminder impacted me, because I realized how long and deep our relationship has become over the years.
“I Can’t Believe I Did It”
There’s a new woman in our programs, Erika, who is a riot! She has a very positive attitude about everything and is a light hearted jokester. Yesterday, she tried to learn the more difficult leather braiding technique and after 45 minutes (and several round of having to take everything apart) she gave up and went back to the easier braid.
However, all day, you could sense her disappointment and she even said she was surprised at herself because she’s usually very good at picking things like that up.
Today, she tried again. At first, she didn’t get it. But after 30 minutes she finally got the technique and was giddy with excitement about getting it! She kept saying, “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe I did it!”
This is a perfect example of a secondary part of our programs, which is learning how to learn and showing the women that they can trust themselves and their skills. This is crucial for the women when it comes to leadership building, self-esteem building, and trusting in a sense of what’s possible for the future.
Ripples of Impact
On the way home, Senor Alberto reminded me of something that I didn’t realize: One of the women from the leather sandal making class is now part of a small sandal making enterprise in the prison!
Senor Alberto said to me, “What I love about working with you is that even though the women don’t always sell what they learn to make, it expands their ideas of what’s possible and what they’re interested in.”
This woman was in our sandal making class in August, and now just 6 months later, her and group of women are making sandals. It’s a different technique, but the class opened up something for her about making and selling sandals. And while it wasn’t a linear path of take the class-> sell leather sandals, the ripple effect is something far more sustainable because it’s based on her desires and interests.