PORTUGAL: Students participate in music project with local prison
Project combines Christian values with social inclusion
(MissionNewswire) Salesian students from the Salesian School in Évora, Portugal, collaborated with inmates at Évora Prison to launch the “Beyond the Mistake” project, a unique educational initiative that finds its common ground in music. The project, developed as part of the Catholic Moral and Religious Education curriculum, is now in its second year.
During the project, participants met in online sessions and face-to-face rehearsals, working together to create lyrics and songs which were then performed in the school auditorium. The event was attended by students from other classes and representatives of the two institutions, Father David Teixeira, director of the Salesians of Évora, and Paula Ramos, director of the Évora Prison. The project also had the collaboration of Artur Emídio, a teacher and music producer and brother of one of the inmates, who contributed to the adaptation and creation of the musical arrangements.
A Salesian said, “The Évora Prison welcomed this collaboration, as it represents an opportunity to reach out to the local community and works with the prison population. For the Salesian educational community, the initiative represents a journey of encounter, learning and responsibility, in which music becomes a language of relationship, sharing and reconstruction.”
As highlighted by Carlos Capelas, a teacher of Catholic Moral and Religious Education, this is a unique project, combining Christian values with social inclusion. Fr. Teixeira recalled that in Turin, Italy, Don Bosco promoted meetings with youth who were deprived of their liberty, always believing in their worth and their future.
Salesian schools and centers educate youth who are poor and disadvantaged across Portugal. According to the World Bank there are close to 2.6 million people living below the poverty line in Portugal, 487,000 of whom are under the age of 18. The country is one of the most unequal countries in Europe as far as wealth distribution. Wealthy citizens earn five times the rate of income than those living in poverty.
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Sources:
ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)
World Bank – Portugal
