{"id":306060,"date":"2018-04-12T23:10:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T21:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/strength-to-rise-up-again\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:36:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:36:54","slug":"strength-to-rise-up-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/strength-to-rise-up-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength to rise up again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cFor nearly three years we Young People For A United World<\/a>, here in Rome, have been working with the prison adminstration<\/strong> and the G9 Committee, a group of eight prisoners from an un-named department of the prison of Rebibbia, who, although they don\u2019t have children of their own, have been engaged in promoting opportunities for other prisoners to meet with their families. Raffaele Natalucci<\/strong> and another twenty-nine young people from Rome share their story. \u201cThree times a year we set up stands where parents and children can spend some time together, playing and colouring with their little ones. During the organized events<\/strong> in the grassy areas, the internal courtyard of the prison, nearly three-hundred people are able to gather, which include inmates and their families, and numerous volunteers from the local area. During one of those events a detainee shared his experience with us: \u201cBeing deprived of your freedom, estranges you from reality. Staying in a cell, between four walls, one\u2019s horizon also begins to shrink. Those that had benefited from special permits said that it was difficult to look far into the horizon. The opportunity to do jobs inside the prison means a lot to me. Before, I spent my energy on illegal activity, but that turned out to be like eating an ice-cream cone that was melting in the sun. But to work at organizing sport events or projects that benefit the inmates is a hundred times better than any salary.\u201d Raffaele continue<\/strong>s: \u201cAs Young People For Unity, we\u2019re having a very powerful human experience: the order from the prison guards to leave every piece of personal property behind resounds, every time, like an invitation to also abandon every prejudice, going beyond the barriers between the outside world and the prison world, to build authentic relationships with the people in jail, to the point that they now refer to us as the \u201cExternal Committee\u201d. We\u2019ve launched a \u201cProject on Legality\u201d with a series of thematic gatherings outside the prison. In full sync with the instructors, inmates and experts, we\u2019ve chosen to explore several topics, such as interpersonal relationships, integration among cultures, a legality of \u201cus\u201d, the rediscovery of one\u2019s attitudes and re-insertion into professional life.\u201d On Father\u2019s Day, March 19th, we invited psychologist, Ezio Aceti, to speak on parenthood, to some seventy inmates in the prison theatre. The presenation was focused on the needs and expectations of the child. \u201cTake note of the other person\u2019s thoughts, talk honestly about oneself, show a positive image,\u201d he explained. \u201cThese are the necessary prerequisites so that the encounter between detainies and their children will bear fruit.\u201d During the roundtable conference, one detainee asked: \u201cWhat can a father with a life sentence say to his daughter?\u201d \u201cThat her father made a mistake, but is doing all he can,\u201d was the answer. \u201cIf his daughter finds that integrity and the courage to get up again, that will be the image she has of her father.\u201d \u201cParenthood is keeping a bond going. You must transmit a feeling of belonging to your children. Then they will have a positive experience and will remember their father who is in prison.\u201d Lastly, the psychologist strongly encouraged the detainees: \u201cRaising a child does not mean not making mistakes, but putting everything into it in spite of the mistakes. That will teach your children tolerance. You can be good fathers even if you\u2019ve made mistakes. Deep down all of us feel discouraged, but there\u2019s another voice in our hearts that tells us: Get up, begin again. It doesn\u2019t matter how many times you\u2019ve gone wrong, but how many times you\u2019ve got up again. The miracle is that by always getting up again, a change will take place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of Focolare young people, the prison administration of Rebibbia\u2019s Adult Prison and a committee of detainees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}