Embroidering Hope: a humane productive model for jails in Paraguay

The act for the signature of the agreement that seals the institutional alliance for the design of a collaborative social enterprise model in the Penitenciaria Nacional del Buen Pastor (National Penitentiary), included the presence of Carla Bacigalupo, Minister of Justice; Fernando Infante, Director Representative of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, in Paraguay. Ana Mercedes Botero, CAF's Director of Social Innovation; and Hilda de Hieber, President of the Princesa Diana Foundation. 

The project, called "Embroidering Hope", is a social innovation initiative that coordinates the interns and their families, the Ministry of Justice, private enterprises, NGO's, and religious groups, in an ecosystem that aims to organize the action of the different actors in an efficient rehabilitation process that contributes to improve the levels of social and working reinsertion of the imprisoned population, in line with Paraguay's public policy. 

The pilot plan, which will be implemented in "El Buen Pastor", is based on a novel productive model co-created by the interns and the penitentiary authorities. This experience has already been implemented by CAF's Social innovation Initiative in other countries, with positive results in the empowering processes and generation of capacities, where the active participation of both actors has been essential. 

The Minister of Justice, Carla Bacigalupo, expressed her satisfaction for the international cooperation project with CAF, multilateral organization that has shown its interest since the beginning to support social reinsertion in Paraguay, especially for imprisoned women. 

The first contacts for reinsertion projects started in a Congress in 2015, with projects that the Ministry of Justice was implementing, as for example, the industrial women's jailhouse, Fujikura, and the establishment of the first store for the permanent sale of products in Turista Roga. Both projects were declared of national interest by the Chamber of Representatives. 

The Minister of Justice, Carla Bacigalupo highlighted, "CAF always showed interest in supporting and investing in these reinsertion projects; we started the joint work so that CAF could learn about the projects in detail, and today it is a reality with a cooperation pilot plan aimed specifically at the women of El Buen Pastor. This program will address all the focal points of social reinsertion through technical training and the provision of tools that will improve the quality and quantity of the production of imprisoned women". 

The Minister added, "The support of an international organization for reinsertion programs is an invaluable contribution to the complex search of humanizing jails in Paraguay, the priority objective of the national government". 

At the same time, Ana Mercedes Botero, CAF's Director of Social Innovation, highlighted the importance of this project in the framework of the development of useful solutions to challenges that afflict Latin America, such as the prison crisis. She pointed out, "CAF, as a multilateral organization, and from the perspective of social innovation, is present in this challenge. We are promoting a business model that seeks to contribute and implements the guidelines of the Penitentiary and Penal System Reform, which includes the humanization of prisons, and particularly the treatment given to the interns by generating capacities that contribute to their effective re-socialization and labor insertion". 

Another aspect of the business model that stands out is the use of profits resulting from the sales generated by the different productive activities, which are reinvested as direct benefits for all the imprisoned population in the pilot establishment through health and psycho-emotional programs, while at the same time they contribute to the sustainability potential of the social enterprise.  

Fernando Infante, CAF's Director Representative in Paraguay, reiterated, "the social enterprise model to be developed in El Buen Pastor seeks to become a solution that can be copied in other penitentiary centers in the country, allowing to address the needs of the imprisoned and post-punished population". 

Finally, Hilda de Hieber, President of the Princesa Diana Foundation, stated that the participation of the organized civil society is essential in the processes that aim at improving the life conditions of individuals. She said, "The collaborative action of the Foundation with the Government's public policy is an example of the coordination of efforts and wills to mobilize the entrepreneurial sector and the community".