The project involved both the male and female prison communities in the creation of radio episodes – eight per year – broadcast on Antena 2 and also internally. “As a result of this project,” explains artistic director Nuno Leão, “the inmates expressed a desire to create an internal radio station within the prison itself.” And so Rádio Guarda-me was born, its broadcasts heard “through the loudspeaker systems – in the yard, in the corridors…”

“My main goal is to show the outside world that people in here are still human, that they still feel, that they have creativity and qualities,” says Sérgio Barbosa, a project participant. For Alice Tavares, the experience became a space of freedom: “It’s a project that takes us out of this environment. We feel free – we don’t feel like prisoners.”

“In fact, the rest of the prison community began listening to these broadcasts and also wanted to be part of it,” says Nuno Leão. And, he adds, “something extraordinary happened: they began passing on skills, teaching and learning from one another.”

Rui Cunha thought he didn’t like reading or writing – but before he realized it, “I was already scribbling little things in a notebook inside the cell.” The first time he managed to read a book from beginning to end was last year, at the age of 32.

According to Isabel Silva, head of the project’s social direction, “This kind of intervention brings us ideas, even recommendations, about the importance of continuing this type of project at a national level.”

In addition to the creation of original radio works, RadioATIVIDADE culminates in a public conference and the screening of a documentary that follows the entire process.