Madrid | March 07, 2017
There are people who are born with a special power. Influential people who, without being known in the media spheres or having thousands of followers on social networks, are able to influence the lives of others. In the lives of their families, their friends, their colleagues...
This is María José López who, at 59 years of age and with a physical disability, has a great capacity to coordinate work teams like the one she now leads at the Envera Special Employment Center. With her, there are eight people in charge of managing the incidents that occur in airline tickets using a complex system based on codes that are indecipherable except for María José and her team. "It is a job for very specialized, qualified personnel, in which a lot of memory and concentration is needed, since there are many codes and transactions," she says, noting that her department handles 1.5 million rejected tickets every year.
Today Pepi, as those who know her affectionately call her, is an influential person for her colleagues, for the company where she works and, although they don't know it, also for all those travelers whose flights have been modified.
But the road has not been easy. María José has also had to overcome the invisible barriers that often accompany people with disabilities. "I thought I could get a job in any company, but no matter how many resumes I submitted, they never took me," she says as she recalls that she was not selected by a travel agency because of her disability and now, paradoxically, her task is to fix everything that these agencies do wrong.
With more than 25 years of experience at Envera, now is when María José feels "very satisfied and fulfilled" with herself, being an example every day that we can all be the best at something if we have the necessary support and are given the opportunity to prove it.
This is also demonstrated by Belén Sánchez, 46, for whom being able to work means much more than just having a salary: "Work allows me to support my son and my family. Belén works as a handler at the Envera Special Employment Center in Madrid.
Her intellectual disability has not prevented her from facing the situations that life puts in front of us. At the age of 16, she had to leave school to support her parents and take care of her seven siblings. Some time later her son was born, "the most important thing" in her life, whom she has raised with the support of her mother. Belén has combined, like so many women, caring for her family with jobs in different sectors.
Without giving up and with a consolidated job at Envera, where she has been working for 18 years, Belén wanted to resume her training in adult education programs, where she has the opportunity to learn and demonstrate that if you want to, sooner or later, you can get things done.
Education is very important. Sara Gómez knows this well. At 27 years of age, she attends classes in the afternoons to obtain her secondary education degree, while in the mornings she works in the laundry service at Envera. Is it worth all the effort? Sara is clear that this is the way "to have a good future in the future," she says, while revealing that she aspires to take the civil service examinations.
The example of Sara, a young woman with a disability who combines studies and work, serves as an inspiration for her peers.
Tomorrow, March 8, International Women's Day is commemorated as a tribute to all the influential women who, like María José, Belén or Sara, show that there are no insurmountable obstacles but that it is necessary to continue working for a real equality of opportunities that has not yet arrived.
In 2015, the unemployment rate of women with disabilities stood at 31.1%, also presenting a wage gap of 18.5% with respect to men, according to INE data.
Social entities work every day to eliminate inequalities for women with disabilities, involving companies and working with administrations. As Pedro Sobrino, General Director of Envera, acknowledges, "it is not only necessary to promote the employability of people with disabilities, we must ensure that this insertion is stable, of high quality, preserving equal conditions and that it also has the necessary support".
Grupo Envera is a non-profit organization founded 40 years ago by Iberia employees, whose transparency is accredited by the Fundación Lealtad, and which serves 2,500 people with intellectual disabilities every year in its early care services, child and youth neurodevelopment, training, occupational and day center, and residences and guardianship; it employs more than 500 people with functional diversity and trains more than 300 athletes; it has the support of 250 volunteers and has a hundred collaborating entities. It has centers in Madrid, Colmenar Viejo (Madrid), Barcelona, Malaga, Tenerife and Las Palmas. This year it commemorates its 40th anniversary under the slogan "We can all be the best at something" and the honorary presidency of Her Majesty Queen Letizia.
