About Universal Civil Service:

Universal Civil Service aims at involving both European non-European citizens who live in Italy to remove inequality and to promote integration over the entire country. For those who want to do their Civil Service abroad, there is also the possibility to travel to another country (International Civil Service). Moreover, the young volunteers can receive consultations from a tutor that will help them enter the workforce. In fact, the experience will make them acquire new skills that they will use in their future studies and jobs. The Civil Service projects have a duration of eight to twelve months, according to the volunteer’s personal and working needs. Being a Civil Service volunteer is an opportunity not only for the ones who desire to donate their time to the others in need and to use their skills to serve their and others’ country but also for those who want to grow professionally and as individuals.

Eleonora’s experience:

Eleonora is a young Italian social worker, passionate about other cultures and travelling.

“Before making my decision, I had thought a lot about it. I had always wanted to have such an experience and since you can do it until you turn 28, which meant that was the last year for me, in March 2019 I left for Bolivia. When the call is issued, you can choose from many different projects, about 35 thousand. I was searching for a project that could involve me completely, so I came to the decision to devote myself to the “justice” project, which gave you the possibility to choose from several destinations. The one I was most attracted to was Bolivia. I had no idea what to expect from that country. The Bolivian culture fascinated me from the very beginning, maybe because it is completely different from ours, but I managed to integrate very well and to experience it to the full. Over that year, I had the opportunity to work as a social worker; more specifically, I supported the 18 to 28-year-old prisoners of a prison rehabilitation centre called Qalauma. In this particular prison, the guys can attend school classes and other courses or activities, a sort of re-education aimed at preventing them from being sucked again into the “criminal” vortex. I was in charge of supporting these guys at any level, from trying to understand why they ended up there to provide legal assistance, without forgetting to support them psychologically by also trying to understand if they had problems with their families and helping them to re-establish a relationship with them. By working with them you understand they are fragile and loving children who actually need help. It was hard when I realised that the context in which many of them live does not give them any other alternative to choose from. I also took care of the post-penitentiary project, which tries to re-integrate these young people into society and to give them a second chance, thus reducing the probability they commit further crimes. It is important for them to be able to actually picture a possible future after detention”.

The project:

The Qalauma socio-rehabilitation centre is the first juvenile penitentiary centre in Bolivia. It is located in the Surusaya Suripanta community, in the municipality of Viacha, about an hour far from La Paz, the administrative capital. It currently welcomes 300 young people aged between 16 and 28, who carry out educational and social activities, with the support and supervision of medical, psychological, and legal staff. The organization of the Centre follows the APAC method (Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Condemned), which is widely applied in Brazil with excellent results (the level of recidivism has dropped from 80% to 13%). The method is based on the concept of “good treatment” to be adopted to rehabilitate the prisoners, that is to say, on restorative justice for the prevention of more crime.

The educational method used within the project was developed by ProgettoMondo Mlal within the project “Minors in prison: a rehabilitation and social reintegration for adolescents in conflict with the law in Bolivia ”, co-financed by the Italian Cooperation. ProgettoMondo Mlal is an NGO that boasts a long tradition in terms of juvenile criminal justice, human right, childhood, and social prevention policies in the country. The project promotes the implementation of socio-professional rehabilitation and reintegration schemes for adolescents who are in prison in the La Paz department or in detention institutions throughout the country. They can do that mainly thanks to an important investment that allowed training and bringing the operators up-to-date.

Giving the released guys a better future

“I loved this job, I have had many experiences of volunteering but this is one of those that changed my life completely. Partly because it forced me to blend with a culture that was totally different from the one I had grown up in. National and International Civil Service is an experience that I would recommend to anyone because it opens your mind up completely. That year changed the way I used to see things, my approach to life and, certainly, it helped me professionally”.