In recognition of the Peace Education Program as a powerful tool for rehabilitation, Italian officials recently acted to make the innovative workshop series available to incarcerated people across the country.
The Ministry of Justice’s Director of Inmates and Treatment, Dr Gianfranco De Gesu, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support the “widespread use of The Prem Rawat Foundation’s (TPRF) Peace Education Program in Italian correctional facilities as a valid tool for educating inmates and their reintegration into society.” The nonprofit Percosi Association and other partners will work with the ministry and correctional facilities on implementation.
The move builds off of a September meeting about the Peace Education Program at the Italian Senate with TPRF Founder Prem Rawat, Minister of Justice Alfonso Bonafede, Senator Arnaldo Lomuti and other legislators (Watch a video of the meeting below).
More than 60,000 people have already participated in the program at correctional facilities across the globe, including several in Italy, with outstanding results. A comprehensive recent study found that 89 percent of 604 incarcerated participants in four continents benefited by helping them feel empowered to face past events, gain a willingness to change, better manage their anger and avoid fighting.
“The initiative is an international success. We are talking about an educational path which is already concrete because it has been proven and practically experienced with significant results that we should try to nurture, emulate and reiterate,” said Minister Bonafede at the senate. “Our objective, of course, is to extend this initiative to other correctional facilities and try to have more and more inmates participate. It is a cultural investment that can be beneficial to society as a whole, since it can help to prevent the risk of recidivism.”
Senator Arnaldo Lomuti and Piero Scutari of the Percorsi Association hold the MOU to bring the Peace Education Program to more Italian correctional facilities.
As a member of the Italian Senate’s Justice Commission, Senator Arnaldo Lomuti has also provided key support for implementing the program across correctional facilities, praising it as a way to “optimize the rehabilitative path.”
The Peace Education Program workshops can be offered in person, virtually, or on inmate tablets by GTL and Edovo. The Prem Rawat Foundation makes the workshop materials available free of charge.
The Peace Education Program is just one of the ways that TPRF advances dignity, peace and prosperity by addressing fundamental human needs.
During the height of the COVID-19 breakout in Italy last year, TPRF worked with the Italian NGO, CESVI, to help provide over 1 million facemasks, 550 ventilators, and critical care to the elderly and handicapped.
Learn more about The Prem Rawat Foundation here.
