Una risposta alternativa

[:en]On the magazine “AMU News” n. 2/2016 we present a project of AMU Portugal addressed to unemployed people of the municipality of Alenquer, near Lisbon. The project also had good results from public institutions.

An alternative response

In Portugal the RAISE project is giving a concrete answer to the unemployment drama: the story of Fernanda and Fernando

Alenquer, 50 km north of Lisbon, 40 thousand inhabitants. Unemployment is strongly felt by the population, especially because of the economic crisis of recent years.

Fernando and Fernanda are married and live here. Since they both lost their job they have experienced great difficulties. The only way of livelihood was the Social Income of Insertion: a contribution recognized by the state to families with no income.

They struggled for long to find a solution. Then one day, looking around in the territory of Alenquer, they realized that there was no one who would clean agricultural land, after the cutting of trees. So, with the permission of the owners, they have started to clean up the land and resell to consumers and small businesses what was there: wood, pinecones, pine needles … They did everything manually, with a huge physical effort.

One day they received from AMU-Portugal the proposal to participate in the RAISE ” Alternative Answer for Social Entrepreneurship and Integration” project. With another 82 people they attended the presentation sessions and were selected among the 50 unemployed people who would participate in the project activities.

Having outlined their path of re-employment with the help of social workers, they then took part in the training sessions to “learn to become entrepreneurs” and of “coaching” sessions to learn to value their skills.

Along side with the project consultants they have been able to prepare the business plan of the company “FF Wood” and formalize the company. RAISE is helping them to find the financial resources to buy some machinery that would improve the productivity of the labour.

Public institutions have been very satisfied with the work done carried out by the project, which in some way was more effective than the states contributions. Perhaps the secret lies in the close relationship built with each of the participants, having already enabled 20 unemployed people to re-enter the labour market and in many of them the desire to reciprocate in some way is already sprouting, as evidenced by one of the letters received “Yesterday I received a job offer and I accepted! … If your dream of expanding the project to neighbouring municipalities comes true, please remember me … I want to volunteer. ”

by Francesco Tortorella

You can view the AMU News article (Italian only) at this link >>>

For more details see the project tab >>>[:it]Su AMU Notizie n. 2/2016 presentiamo un progetto di AMU Portogallo rivolto a persone disoccupate del Comune di Alenquer, vicino a Lisbona. Il progetto ha avuto risultati apprezzati anche dalle istituzioni pubbliche.

Puoi visualizzare l’articolo di AMU Notizie a questo link >>>

Per maggiori dettagli vedi la scheda progetto >>>[:]