Speaking Visit to Norgerhaven and Esserheem Prisons Veenhuizen

An Honest Account, Shared in Person

On Sunday, May 17, Francesco Salerno will visit the correctional facilities Norgerhaven and Bankenbosch in Veenhuizen, where he will share his personal testimony with inmates.

Francesco speaks to inmates as someone who understands from experience what it means to feel trapped, inside circumstances that seemed fixed, inside choices that accumulated over time, inside a version of life that seemed to leave little room for anything different. He knows what it is to make decisions driven by desperation, by fear, or by the simple absence of any visible alternative. He also knows what it means to reach a moment when everything shifts.

During this visit Francesco will speak openly about his life. His past. The circumstances and choices that shaped the person he became. The weight he carried and the moment that changed everything. He will be specific and direct, speaking the way a man speaks when he is telling his own story rather than making a point, because that is precisely what this is.

His testimony carries no judgement and asks for nothing in return. It is simply the account of someone who was in a place from which return seemed unlikely, and who found that return was possible after all. That account is offered to anyone in the room willing to hear it.

Following his testimony there will be an open session for questions and conversation. Inmates are warmly invited to respond, to ask whatever is on their minds, and to share their own thoughts. That conversation is as much a part of the visit as the testimony itself.