Last Thursday, on May 7th, we went to the women prison
in Panevėžys. As Laia has worked in a prison in Spain before she was very
interested in getting to know the prison here as well, whereupon Kristina
organized an appointment for us.
Our presentation, for about 30 women, took place in the
class room in one of the prison buildings. At the beginning we introduced
ourselves in Lithuanian and showed a movie that Laia had created about her EVS
experience. We also had baked cake for the women because we thought it would be
a nice gesture and wanted to create a comfortable atmosphere for everybody. Afterwards,
we showed a quiz and a presentation about our countries. I think the women
liked both very much as many of them discussed the answers to the quiz
questions and told us that they found it
very interesting. They also asked about women prisons in our countries, so Laia
explained them what the prison she volunteered at was like. At the end, we
could also ask questions to the women. All the four of us felt very
comfortable while presenting and to meet the women and see the prison from
inside was very interesting for us.
After our presentation, the prison‘s director showed us
around: We could see some rooms where the women live (one woman even invited us
to see her room), the library room, the church room, the factory where the
women work from outside, and the building with yard for the women who live
there with their babies.
All in all, we are very glad to have gained the experience
to meet with the women and to give them an insight into the life in our home
countries and our work in Panevėžys. The prison‘s director is thinking about
applying as a host organization for EVS volunteers in the future. In our
opinion, that would be a great idea.
