A four-month-long walk on the ancient Santiago de Compostela offers young offenders a different pathway — a route to redemption.

Since 1982 more than 350 teenagers have walked the 2,496 kilometers along one of Christianity's most important pilgrimages.

At the end of the self-reflective journey through Spain lies not only the tomb of St James, but also their own freedom.

"The whole idea is that we give youngsters a different role in society from the one they know," says Sophie Boddez, one of the Oikoten project managers.

(READ the story in the New Internationalist magazine from July 2012)