By Marleen Romero, VIVE Project facilitator in CDMX
In December, the Proyecto VIVE team in Mexico City visited 20 female inmates at the Women's Center for Social Readaptation in Tepepan, located in the municipality of Xochimilco.
For a month, Laura Hernández, VIVE liaison; Marleen Romero, VIVE facilitator; and Isabel Cortez, VIVE administrative assistant, trained the 20 women in customer service and the prevention of violence against girls and women.
This course became a space for sharing experiences and stories; the common thread was that the participants shared that “being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or trusting the wrong person, changed their lives,” yet that has not stopped them from being able to dream.
The VIVE-CDMX team emphasized that “it is surprising to see how every woman we train, despite her situation, continues to be the primary economic and emotional support for her family. One might think otherwise, but here we realized the reality that many women deprived of their liberty experience.”.
The call within the CEFERESO managed to bring together women from different areas. Some knew each other, others did not, most of them are serving long sentences, but that has not stopped them from learning, having hope, and dreaming of a life outside those walls that limit their freedom.
In each session, the women experienced sisterhood among themselves and learned to recognize themselves. That living together helped them discover their talents, passions, and skills; an example of this growth was Ana María.
María has been deprived of her liberty for 20 years. In recent years, she discovered her passion for cooking and has focused on improving her culinary skills. That growth has inspired her peers to take ownership of their dreams. Each of the graduates was able to ground their ideas, analyze how they would use what they learned in VIVE, and boost their morale to finish their sentences.
The training of Proyecto VIVE at the Women's Social Readaptation Center changed the expectations of the female inmates, as they always displayed the best attitude and good humor, but it also changed the expectations of the team. The three members of VIVE-CDMX were received with excitement and gratitude,
This training was significant for Project VIVE because, thanks to the support of the ManpowerGroup Foundation, we managed to have the graduates certified in Customer Service before CONOCER.
The VIVE-CDMX team concluded that “we feel very honored to meet such valuable women and we learned that no matter what conditions a woman is in, whether she is deprived of her liberty or not, she is important and valuable, and it is our duty to provide her with tools to improve her life.”.