This sentence is an excerpt from the 160-page publication that the company Águas da Região de Aveiro (AdRA) will present to the public at Buçaquinho Park, in Ovar, at the 9th edition of the literary festival Gigantes Invisíveis, which, from Thursday 25 April to Sunday, will bring several free activities to that space in Esmoriz and Cortegaça aimed at promoting reading in the children's community.

The book is the result of a social and pedagogical project that AdRA began to develop in the school of the aforementioned prison and which was later extended to children in the 1st Cycle of educational establishments in Varea and to students from Homem Cristo Secondary School, in Aveiro.

This publishing project was led by the company's Environmental Education and Communication coordinator, Nuno Vasconcelos Branco, who, in statements to Lusa, says that it all began in a Painting class at the prison: "The inmates began to talk about what it was like to be there and one of them said that 'freedom is being able to hug a tree'. This made us think and we immediately saw the potential of a project with them about the 50th anniversary of 25 April".

First with a limited print run of only 300 copies and only available in June in bookstores, "Liberdade é." was thus composed of three segments: the texts written by inmates aged from 20 to over 50 and illustrated by children from nine classes in the 2nd year of schooling; a series of statistical and historical data on the water sector at the time of 25 April, such as the outbreak of cholera recorded in the 1970s in Porto and other cities in the country; and several essays by students from Homem Cristo Secondary School on environmental concerns and other social threats to individual and collective freedom.

"Freedom is not just getting rid of evil and authoritarian regimes; it is also having access to things, to sensations, to everything that a human being needs to be complete -- and that is why this book, with such different perspectives from each other, is truly inspiring", says Nuno Vasconcelos Branco.

With "minimal editing of the texts", this hardback publication may not exhibit the highest literary quality, but "it more than compensates as a sociological study" -- not least because the project also involved teachers from the prison and final year students from the Design and Arts course at the University of Aveiro, who are now preparing a future exhibition on the same work.

Cláudio Pedrosa, assistant at Aveiro Prison, emphasises that the partnership between the various participants associated with the project resulted in, "in addition to a cross-section of very different ideas about Freedom, also a very rewarding intergenerational dialogue".

The effect of this collaboration on the morale and behaviour of the inmates is particularly noticeable by those who work with them on a daily basis: "The changes are noticeable in interpersonal communication, between the inmates themselves and [in the dialogue of these] with teachers, prison guards, technicians, health professionals, administrators and visitors from the outside world. In general, the relationship becomes more relaxed, the inmates are more communicative and in a good mood, and they are, above all, more assertive in the face of setbacks, which reduces conflicts and tensions in the prison environment".

Cláudio Pedrosa emphasises that "there are also those who discover individual skills and abilities that they did not know they had" and adds that some inmates report "the satisfaction of making better use of the time they are deprived of their freedom and the relief of anxieties and concerns that made them more anxious and irritable".

This person in charge hopes that the book "Liberdade é." can now contribute to "transforming the social image of citizens who are temporarily deprived of their freedom" and also improve the preconceived ideas about prisons and the professionals who work there -- many of them "based on television series and films that have very little to do with reality".

"Opening up the prison to the surrounding community can help it to realise that it has an indispensable role not only in the process of monitoring sentences and measures of deprivation of liberty, but also in welcoming and reintegrating these people when they return to life in freedom", he explains.

Such help is decisive, in fact, for fulfilling the democratic spirit idealised by the Carnation Revolution, because "those who remember the prisons of 50 years ago know that a long way has been travelled, towards a better reality, but they also know that this journey is never over -- transformation is a daily task that needs the collaboration of the surrounding community".

The expectation of the assistant to the prison management is that the free population will realise that a spell in prison is not incompatible with enrichment and appreciation at various levels: "One of the inmates said that he had to come here to 'free' himself from drugs. A student confessed to feeling 'without freedom' to choose a higher education course if it meant moving to another city and not having the financial capacity for accommodation. Those who are in prison think about and value freedom more than those who live outside it, but there are also freedoms that are not restricted or that are even expanded, such as freedom of thought and artistic creation".

As an example of this, Cláudio Pedrosa says that some inmates began to write poetry and "won literary prizes in national competitions, when, in freedom, they had never written a verse". Others starred in plays, "discovered that they were capable of performing on stage, in front of a full auditorium, and want to continue this path when they leave prison".

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