PESARO – It’s called “Yoga in prison” is the project aimed at the inmates of the women’s section of the Pesaro prison, who will practice the discipline once a week. A total karma yoga initiative (volunteer service) born from an idea of Manuela Andreanicreator and coordinator of the project, with the patronage of the Sports Councilor Mila Della Dora, and the director of the Pesaro prison Annalisa Gasparro.
«A beautiful project that aims to make us reflect, become aware of our body and mind – commented councilor Della Dora -. In the year of the Italian Capital of Culture 2024 we have chosen to strengthen this type of sensitivity, linked to sport and the well-being of the community. I thank the organizers and the director of the prison.”
A project that, as he explains Manuela Andreaniconsistently with the themes of responsibility and legality, was born with the aim of seeing prison «as a place in which to give something back to the prisoner along his journey, so that it is not restored once the state of illegality has emerged. Prison must be a place of work on oneself, within oneself.” According to Andreani, the repercussions of practicing yoga within a prison context and on people who have to live in a situation of forced constraint can be: «a decrease in the level of aggression that each inmate pours on his companions and himself and a greater serenity of mind, which pushes us to overcome the dynamics of isolation and further marginalization of some inmates”.
And he continues: «We believe in the potential of yoga practice in all conditions and we want to bring it even where it would be most difficult to reach, make it known and make it available to people who live, have lived, have caused suffering; because a civilization that forgets prisoners cannot be called a civil society. This project wants to do its part for the diffusion of yoga as a tool for personal and social integration. The teaching of yoga in prison is particularly effective in terms of recovering physical, mental and emotional presence.”
The vision that the new director Annalisa Gasparro has of prison is in fact that of a place where “give something back” to the prisoner along his journey, a place where we can begin to practice taking responsibility, so that once we leave, the state of illegality is not restored. Thus the director of the prison: «The situation of female detention is quite a peculiar situation. A condition which, in my opinion, is not always looked at with due importance, partly due to the lower percentage of women prisoners compared to the population for which the system was designed. We welcomed the project with enthusiasm because it puts the condition of women at the centre, through the important and rehabilitative practice of sport.”
A crucial partner is the King Spa company, with its new KING store (via Gagarin 126 in Pesaro), which donated the mats on which the inmates will practice to the female sector of the Pesaro prison. The support of Commander Nicandro Silvestri, Deputy Commissioner Tiziano Tontini and the head of the legal and pedagogical area Enrichetta Vilella was invaluable.
