BHF ARTS IN CORRECTIONS
"Create a Healthier & Vibrant Environment for Inmates"
This project provided inmates with creative arts training, supporting the country's shift from punitive to correctional policy since 2016. It used arts to document experiences and connect inmates with society for easier reintegration after release.
The programme was implemented at Mukobeko Maximum Female Correctional Facility from December 2022 to February 2023. The National Arts Council of Zambia and the Zambia National Commission for UNESCO provided quality assurance of the arts training workshops and certification to the inmates who participated in the programme.
A series of training workshops in the following categories were conducted:
Creative Writing (Poetry and Prose), Visual Art (Painting),
Indigenous Choreography of Mooba and Kalela (Traditional Dances of Zambia).
A total number of 35 inmates were trained. As they got better at self-expression, the project helped inmate artists to explore the personal traumas in a supportive environment and enabled them, as they created art with their own hands and minds, to reestablish their worth and regain a sense of purpose.
They learned to articulate their actions and identify their triggers. They developed healthier ways to express themselves and break the cycle of past behaviors.
The works that were produced during the Mukobeko Maximum Female Correctional facility workshops have been compiled into a publication ready anthology. The Zambia Correctional Service has since endorsed the anthology to be made publicly accessible given the exceptional quality of the works.
The artistic skills provide lifelong empowerment.
Inmates can use them to create and sell marketable art both during and after their sentences, supporting sustainable livelihoods. Additionally, the works hold value for the Zambia Correctional Service and educational institutions in raising public awareness about crime. The Zambia Correctional Service has also called upon BHF to consider scaling up this training programme to all correctional facilities.
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