Transforming their lives with authenticity: Johanna Bahamón brings MIT TEJI courses to La Modelo prison
A group of students from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), inmates from La Modelo prison and Inpec staff participated in the Authenticity course, taught by Professor Lee Perlman, director of the MIT Institute for Educational Justice. The course, which was held for the first time outside the United States, seeks to develop learning opportunities inside and outside the prison walls, and explore topics such as cruelty, manipulation, rage, radical honesty and forgiveness.
The course was made possible thanks to the alliance between the Internal Action Foundation, led by Johana Bahamón, and the MIT Institute for Educational Justice. Bahamón stated that the purpose of this alliance is “to provide certified, inclusive education of the highest quality to a group of people deprived of their liberty.”
La Modelo was chosen as the site for this pilot because of its goal of transforming its facilities into powerful platforms for cultural and moral reconciliation. The space will have the potential to develop sustained engagement by students from prestigious universities with the prison population in Colombia, and to strengthen institutional links for international networking.
During the course, documentary filmmaker María Paula Ávila filmed a documentary focused on this meeting between the different social actors, whose purpose is to generate reconciliation through education. In Ávila's words, "any social or cultural pact that bears the name 'peace' must include and challenge all Colombian citizens as beings prone to violence and as agents of moral and political behavior, including the prison population."
She also said that one of her commitments is to change the conditions of this population: “Now I not only have one commitment as vice president, but also as the designated Minister of Equality and Equity. I believe that this is an opportunity to change the quality of life of all Colombians who live in marginality, injustice and inequality, such as the prison population, for which we will have to work hard, with education being one of the main goals,” said the vice president in her speech.
The Authenticity course was a unique and inspiring experience for all participants, who shared their reflections and experiences on what it means to live an authentic life. Julio César López, who has been deprived of his freedom in La Modelo for six years and participated in the course, said: “This opportunity has allowed us to see that there are other ways to live our lives than the ones we know. It has taught us to value ourselves more as people and to recognize our mistakes and virtues.”