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NGO helps former inmates find jobs
Jeera Foundation offers barista-training courses for inmates at the Cipinang Penitentiary by providing a cafe as a learning facility inside the penitentiary.
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Lilis Putri Ayu, a 33-year-old former inmate who now works as a barista, brews a drink for customers at a coffee shop, called Jeera Pascorner, which is located next to Cipinang Penitentiary in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, on Monday. (JP/Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman)
L
ilis Putri Ayu, a 33-year-old barista brewed a cup of coffee at the Jeera Pascorner coffee shop located next to Cipinang Penitentiary in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, for a customer, nothing extraordinary except that Jeera Pascorner is staffed by two former convicts.
Lilis served a jail term at Pondok Bambu Women's Penitentiary in Duren Sawit, also in East Jakarta, until she was released in 2016.
In May 2017, she joined a barista-training program run by the Jeera Foundation, which focuses on helping former inmates to develop skills and creativity and she started working at Jeera Pascorner five months later.
"I joined the program because I always loved coffee," Lilis, who lives in Senen in Central Jakarta, said on Monday. "I got educational and social benefits from the foundation."
Lilis is an example of more than 100 former inmates who have found jobs after taking part in a Jeera Foundation training program. However, some inmates find it hard to return to their communities after their jail time.
"Many of my friends have yet to get jobs,” Lilis said. “They are embarrassed to admit they are ex-convicts. They also do not want to join the foundation because they think the salaries are low.”
The program is designed to help not only with ex-offenders’ reentry into society and prevent them reoffending, but also to solve overcrowding in prisons, according to Jeera Foundation, which was established at the Cipinang Penitentiary in 2016 by former inmates.
