#OurProgramsDon'tStop

At La Cana, the well-being and health of our collaborators, both inside and outside prison, is our priority. Therefore, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic we are currently experiencing, we made the decision not to visit the prisons as a measure to prevent contagions.

In this way, we have had to adapt our programs in order to continue working with women deprived of their liberty, without putting them at risk of contagion. Thus, since mid-March, we have continued with our job training and employment program, even though we are not physically visiting the prisons. We are working more closely than ever with the penitentiary authorities, and it is through them that we deliver work materials to the women so they can continue knitting. In turn, they send us the products they make weekly through the Department of Penitentiary Industry.

Likewise, we have recorded various tutorials with Mace (our knitting teacher) in case the inmates have doubts about how to make a product, and even better, to bring in new knitters who want to learn crochet techniques and join our team.

Today more than ever, we realize that during confinement, it is necessary for our minds and spirits to stay busy to mitigate the effects of this social distancing; therefore, it led us to consider that not only work activities, but our Comprehensive Social Reintegration Program should not stop!

So, to keep our mission going, the La Cana team designed a set of activities for women deprived of their liberty who participate in our programs. In this way, we contribute to maintaining closeness with our beneficiaries, whom we miss very much and who we are protecting with this temporary distancing.

The Activity Folder design contains various exercises that will help our knitters reduce their stress levels and discover new skills.

These activities include a series of exercises that they can send us weekly so we can observe their progress; and for our part, the commitment to keep these activities updated, such as the Reading Club, from the Education component, for which "The Little Prince" was chosen this time, as it is a book full of beauty and complexity where everyone can find a lesson about life; the idea of this activity is that they can meet to read and discuss the questions we send them; as can be seen, this type of activity contributes to developing ideas together, teamwork, tolerance, and empathy.