A lighthouse of hope has emerged inside the Baguio City Jail Male Dormitory, where the emotional weight of incarceration and the physical walls sometimes create deep shadows. The Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDL) Livelihood Exhibit and Christmas Village opened a new chapter in rehabilitation and community involvement on November 20. Running till the year-end, this event is a potent tribute to the resiliency, inventiveness, and will of the prisoners at the Baguio City Jail, not only a festive celebration.
A Christmas Village Designed with Heart and Purpose
Unlike the typical Christmas fairs loaded with mass-produced goods, the PDL Livelihood Exhibit features a great range of handcrafted objects that honor the uniqueness and inventiveness of the people who created them. From hand-carved coconut shell cups to finely spun bags, every item on exhibit is more than just a craft; it’s the representation of the effort and hope that lives in even the toughest of environments. Made by prisoners from many Cordillera provincial jails, the display also includes original holiday décor, cushions, basket weaving, and wall paintings. These objects capture Christmas’s essence as well as the transforming trips of those behind prison.
Designed by local designer and artist Eros Goze, the show highlights the latent artistic ability and promise found within the Baguio City Jail. Goze has given these prisoners the chance to highlight their skills in a public venue, therefore giving them the respect they sometimes lack in a society that routinely forgets them. She believes in the ability of art to heal and transform. Along with helping prisoners express themselves, this platform offers them priceless skills that will help them reintegrate into society once they are released.
Changing Lives Through Skill Development and Artistry
Though at first glance the objects on the show seem to be exquisite handcrafted goods, each one has deeper, more significant value. Behind every object—from a handcrafted purse to a finely created decoration—is a narrative of human change. Born of vocational training and rehabilitation programs meant to teach the prisoners useful, marketable skills, these goods are the result of labor. These programs provide PDLs with useful life skills that will enable them to reconstruct their life and reintegrate into society once their sentences finish, not only a means of expression for creativity.
The rehabilitation initiatives of the Baguio City Jail bear evidence to the institution’s efficacy in promoting constructive transformation. Leading proponent of these projects, Jail Superintendent April Rose Wandag-Ayangwa proudly discussed the exhibit, adding, “These handcrafted artifacts reflect a message of transformation and the yearning for a better future.” Under her direction, the jail—which recognizes its dedication to rehabilitation, education, and vocational training—has been named Best National City Jail of 2024. These initiatives equip PDLs with the chance to acquire skills outside their present situation, therefore arming them for a successful reintegration into society.
Encouraging Rehabilitation: Ethical Shopping
The Livelihood Exhibit offers the public a chance to participate in a compassionate deed that directly affects the life of imprisoned people, therefore beyond mere marketplaces. The sales of the products help to fund vocational and educational initiatives for the PDLs, therefore arming them with the tools and means required for their reintegration into society. These initiatives assist the prisoners in developing skills that will eventually increase their economic possibilities, enabling them to sustain themselves and their family upon their release and so promote their personal development.
Shopping at the exhibit turns into a meaningful deed that gives people who are trying hard to reconstruct their life another opportunity. Baguio City Councilor Isabelo Cosalan emphasized the importance of these goods not only as means of income-generating instruments but also as symbols of the inmates’ capacity for change. He said, “These works are evidence of potential and change, not only income-generating pursuits. Purchasing these products promotes dignity and improves quality of life. Purchasing a product created by PDLs allows the public to express support for rehabilitation, transformation, and atonement, therefore beyond mere gift-giving.
The display also invites the larger community to think about presents with impact. Officials advise the people to opt to support PDL-made crafts instead of the usual consumer items during the holiday season when gift-buying is a widespread habit. Purchasing goods from the exhibit not only brings festive cheer but also helps to support a more extensive purpose of rehabilitation and social reintegration. The lesson this Christmas season is clear: choose presents with the ability to transform life.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong of Baguio City reflected the core goals of the exhibit—hope and rebirth—that define the city. He underlined that helping the PDL-made crafts is about choosing to support second chances, change, and redemption rather than only about expenditure of money. “It’s about choosing to support change and redemption,” Magalong added, reminding the public that every purchase helps rehabilitation programs for prisoners to be long-term successful.
This occasion also emphasizes the need of community assistance for the rehabilitation process. The success of the exhibit is a result of the active involvement of the Baguio community as much as the efforts of the prisoners and the jail staff. Supporting the cause, residents, guests, and local businesses have set off a chain reaction of support that strengthens, more inclusive society.
Emulating Hope and Offering Gifts
The PDL Livelihood Exhibit reminds us strongly of the transforming power of kindness and assistance as the holiday season begins. It’s an honoring of the human spirit’s resiliency and a public call to action to enable those behind bars to reconstruct their life. Apart from providing a distinctive range of handcrafted goods, the event pushes the audience to consider how they may help to bring about social change by daily acts.
Supporting the exhibit helps people to invest in the future of people who are trying to overcome past mistakes and build a better future for themselves and their families, not only in terms of a holiday gift. Every purchase is a vote for rehabilitation, decency, and the conviction that individuals deserve a second shot.
The Baguio City Jail’s PDL Livelihood Exhibit and Christmas Village is a lighthouse of hope as we enter the holiday season showing that redemption is achievable by means of imagination, skill-building, and community support. More than just a collection of handcrafted items, the display stands for the power of transformation and the conviction that every person, regardless of background, has the ability to grow and favorably impact society. Purchasing from the exhibit lets the public join this trip and provide hope and encouragement for a better, more inclusive future for all.
