A program in five Venezuelan prisons teaches classical and folk music to inmates.

LOS TEQUES JOURNAL

By SIMON ROMERO

LOS TEQUES, Venezuela - When Nurul Asyiqin Ahmad was taken seven months ago to her cell at the National Institute of Feminine Orientation, a prison perched on a hill on the outskirts of Caracas, learning how to play Beethoven was one of the last things on her mind.
“The despair gripped me, like a nightmare had become my life, said Ms. Ahmad, 26, a shy law student from Malaysia . “But when the music begins, I am lifted away from this place. Ms. Ahmad plays violin and sings .
In a project extending Venezuela’s renowned system of youth orchestras to some of the country’s most hardened prisons, Ms.
Ahmad and hundreds of other prisoners -including about 40 at INOF, as the women’s prison is known - are learning a repertory that includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and folk songs . The project, which began a year ago, is expanding this year to five prisons from three.
Many inmates hope to reduce their terms by playing in the orchestra, which judges may consider the equivalent of hours of study.
“This is our attempt to achieve the humanization of prison life, said Kleiberth Lenin Mora, 32, a lawyer who helped create the prison orchestras . “We start with the simple idea that performing music lifts the human being to another level.
Few nations have prison systems as much in need of humanizing as Venezuela, where 498 inmates out of a total population of 21,201 were killed in 2007, according to the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, a group that monitors prison violence. The women’s prison has been the scene of gang fights and hunger strikes by inmates in recent months.
Officials say it is too early to tell whether the project will improve overall conditions here and at the two prisons for men where it started .
The project, which receives $3 million in funding from President Hugo Chavez’s government and the Inter- American Development Bank, staged its first public performance in May in Teresa Carreno Theater in Caracas.
The orchestra at INOF is one of the most cosmopolitan in Venezuela.
Many of the inmates are foreigners arrested on drug-smuggling charges. Women from Colombia, Spain, Malaysia and the Netherlands perform alongside Venezuelans.
“I drain away my bad thoughts in the orchestra,’’ said Joanny Aldana, 29, a viola player serving a nine-year sentence for kidnapping and auto theft. Like some of the other inmates, she is imprisoned here with her child, a 2-year-old daughter. Still, she despairs sometimes.
“There’s the pain of my children, of having destroyed my life, my youth, Ms. Aldana said.