The organization fairs are organized by the Ministry of Justice so that people living in prisons can find out first-hand what services are available to them
Suara Cooperativa approaches people deprived of their liberty at three organization fairs that have been held in different prisons in Catalonia around Sant Jordi.
The first of these took place on April 14 at the Ponent prison in Lleida; the second, on April 22 at the Brians 1 prison in Sant Esteve de Sesrovires; and, finally, the Wad-Ras women's prison hosted another one on the same day of Sant Jordi, on April 23 in Barcelona.
These fairs, organized by the Department of Justice, aim to bring entities closer to people deprived of their liberty so that they can learn about the services or resources available to them.
“The objective of the entity fair is to make the entities known, encourage participation, create a network, promote social cohesion and disseminate values and activities,” explains Maria Amanterrou, intercultural mediator for Suara Cooperativa at the Ponent Penitentiary Center in Lleida.
Beyond this, explains Abdelamjid El Gourche, also an intercultural mediator at this same penitentiary center, the Fair is “a special day where all entities collaborate”; as well as “a space where entities can detect needs”.
Therefore, the Entity Fairs are a meeting place between social entities and the people served so that they can get to know and recognize each other in order to address and respond to the needs of people deprived of their liberty.
One way to approach people is through different activities and, for example, in the case of Lleida, a questionnaire was given to the people served to see if they knew what intercultural mediation was; while in Wad-Ras, a mural was worked on with the people served.
Intercultural mediation service
In the case of Suara Cooperativa, it offers the intercultural mediation service to six of the nine prisons in Catalonia. The figure of intercultural mediation goes far beyond a mere translation and interpretation service, but also provides support to the people served in other prominent areas such as helping them process papers, as well as jointly addressing a social reintegration plan to prepare for their release from prison.
In addition, intercultural mediation also addresses conflict resolution from a culture of peace, therefore from the prevention and management of these. For this reason, within the penitentiary centers, activities such as art actions or virtual reality are carried out to break stigmas and bring people closer together.
Within the framework of these three fairs, around 150 people have come to learn about this service. Around forty people did so at the Center de Ponent in Lleida, around 60 at Brians 1 in Sant Esteve de Sesrovires and more than fifty at Wad-Ras in Barcelona.
