Full Name
Johana Bahamón
Job Title
CEO
Current Employer
Fundación Acción Interna
Speaker Bio
Second chances social activist for the prison and post-convict population in Colombia. Actress, businesswoman, founder and executive president of the Acción Interna Foundation.
Author of the books Historias Privadas de la Libertad (2020) and Segundas Oportunidades (2022) published by Editorial Planeta.
Promoter of the Second Opportunities Law (2208 of May 17, 2022), which establishes economic incentives to strengthen access and opportunities in employment and training for people who are released from prison.
Appointed by the Ministry of Justice and Law as Goodwill Ambassador to promote the resocialization and humanization of the penitentiary system (2014).
In 2000 she started her acting career. After participating in 15 productions and in her last leading role in the tv show Tres Milagros, she retired from acting to dedicate herself to work in prisons.
In 2012 she created a theater group in the Buen Pastor women’s prison in Bogotá, with which she began her connection to the prison sector. To date, with the Acción Interna Foundation, they have managed to benefit 112,000 people deprived of liberty in the 132 prisons in Colombia.
In 2012 she created the Teatro Interno Foundation, today Acción Interna Foundation.
She has made versions I, II, III, IV and V of the National Prison Theater Festival, with presentations for the public outside the prisons.
Organizer of the first TEDx in a prison in Latin America: TEDx Buen Pastor: How to Turn Mistakes into Opportunities. (2015)
Member of the Prison Dignity Committee of the Ministry of Justice and Law (2013).
Co-founder of Casa Libertad, a space for post-convict care in alliance with the Ministry of Justice, INPEC and Colsubsidio. (2015)
Founder of the first restaurant in the world open to the public in a women’s prison facility: INTERNO. (Cartagena, 2016)
She has participated as a speaker at international IDB events; at the Women’s Forum for Society and Economy, in Deauville, France and Sao Pablo, Brazil; TEDx Women Bogota; Woman True North, in Mexico; Demand Solutions, in Miami; Women Economic Forum Latin America; McKenzie; International Penitentiary Congress organized by the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, in Costa Rica; Harvard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.
In 2017 she began working with the youth prison sector.
Co-creator of the Agencia Interna, the first advertising agency inside a male prison in the world. (2019)
In 2020, during the pandemic, she managed to impact with humanitarian aid the 120,000 people deprived of their liberty in the 132 prisons in the country, as well as the custody and surveillance personnel.
Founder of the House of Second Opportunities in Bogotá. (2021)
Author of the books Historias Privadas de la Libertad (2020) and Segundas Oportunidades (2022) published by Editorial Planeta.
Promoter of the Second Opportunities Law (2208 of May 17, 2022), which establishes economic incentives to strengthen access and opportunities in employment and training for people who are released from prison.
Appointed by the Ministry of Justice and Law as Goodwill Ambassador to promote the resocialization and humanization of the penitentiary system (2014).
In 2000 she started her acting career. After participating in 15 productions and in her last leading role in the tv show Tres Milagros, she retired from acting to dedicate herself to work in prisons.
In 2012 she created a theater group in the Buen Pastor women’s prison in Bogotá, with which she began her connection to the prison sector. To date, with the Acción Interna Foundation, they have managed to benefit 112,000 people deprived of liberty in the 132 prisons in Colombia.
In 2012 she created the Teatro Interno Foundation, today Acción Interna Foundation.
She has made versions I, II, III, IV and V of the National Prison Theater Festival, with presentations for the public outside the prisons.
Organizer of the first TEDx in a prison in Latin America: TEDx Buen Pastor: How to Turn Mistakes into Opportunities. (2015)
Member of the Prison Dignity Committee of the Ministry of Justice and Law (2013).
Co-founder of Casa Libertad, a space for post-convict care in alliance with the Ministry of Justice, INPEC and Colsubsidio. (2015)
Founder of the first restaurant in the world open to the public in a women’s prison facility: INTERNO. (Cartagena, 2016)
She has participated as a speaker at international IDB events; at the Women’s Forum for Society and Economy, in Deauville, France and Sao Pablo, Brazil; TEDx Women Bogota; Woman True North, in Mexico; Demand Solutions, in Miami; Women Economic Forum Latin America; McKenzie; International Penitentiary Congress organized by the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, in Costa Rica; Harvard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.
In 2017 she began working with the youth prison sector.
Co-creator of the Agencia Interna, the first advertising agency inside a male prison in the world. (2019)
In 2020, during the pandemic, she managed to impact with humanitarian aid the 120,000 people deprived of their liberty in the 132 prisons in the country, as well as the custody and surveillance personnel.
Founder of the House of Second Opportunities in Bogotá. (2021)
Speaking At
