Cristi says that working makes you happy. It’s that simple. It’s precisely what we all complain about that makes her feel alive: “My work generates endorphins in me. I see everything beautiful. I always say: “How kind people are, how beautiful they are … the clothes, like everything is good. I’m told it’s because I’ve only been here a short time, but no. To understand it, you have to go back 14 years. When she was diagnosed with a rare disease that, in her case, became ultra-rare: “She didn’t respond to any treatment.” It was the time of hospitals, admissions and palliative care. Morphine, fentanyl, corticosteroids.
“When they told me I could work, I saw the sky open. Because of the economy and because I wore diapers, and had a nurse brush my teeth, and because I said goodbye several times. Of life. “Get up, work 20 hours a week and see yourself in a normative life. “What people complain about is what I wanted: to have a normal job,” she insists.
“What people complain about is what I wanted: to have a normal job”
Today, Cristina Rosales, 39, works at Massimo Dutti on Larios Street in Málaga. This was not the original plan, as the textile company was looking for someone for the warehouse. But seeing and hearing her, they changed their minds. This is what Pepi Bohórquez, social worker at COCEMFE Málaga, -30 years in the world of disability- tells us. For her, dedicated to the integration of people with disabilities from Málaga Integra, adhering to the Incorpora program of Fundación La Caixa, this is a special case.
“This hire was very nice because it wasn’t something they needed at the moment, but they accepted it and restructured the staff.” “If you want, you canThat’s kind of the message we want to get across. People want to work, the offers exist, there are good candidates who can fit in and that’s what this company did,” explains Bohórquez.
“Cristina is delighted because she cannot work full time. “She’s very tired and he hired her in a way that she could adapt.” COCEMFE emphasizes that, “as she has no problems, she works on Saturday and Sunday and depending on the day she can organize herself to rest.”
Breaks for Cristi are essential. He tells us that outwardly he does not notice any handicap. But it is recognized at 69%. This is all due to a Mast cell activation syndrome (SAM) non-clonal. It is an extremely rare disease that transformed his body into an unpredictable bomb: more than 40 failed diagnoses, 150 emergencies, 80 admissions, 15 stays in intensive care and an induced coma.
At first and for years, no one believed her. Only internal bleeding highlighted the true seriousness. From there, they observed that before each period she became critical, until at the age of 33 (after becoming a mother) they decided to remove her tubes and ovaries to stop the outbreaks that were pushing her over the edge.
After this operation, he achieved a certain stability, even if the crises continue to condition his daily life. She, she tells us, has “everything” at home and “knows what happens when things happen”.
“I have a 69% handicap. It was very difficult for me to ask, I cried a lot. Disability is stigmatized”
In this journey back to life, he has a message for other disabled people: “I am 69% disabled. It was very difficult for me to ask, I cried a lot. Because disability is stigmatized. But if it can help you get a job, then you will prove your worth. I am here. This is why I tell all people with disabilities not to limit themselves. “If I limited myself, I would be in bed crying.”
This is not partly thanks to Pepi and the rest of the COCEMFE team. “I met them online,” Cristi says. “Through the Council’s unemployment journey, I didn’t see that there were many opportunities or maybe it was the man who helped me, but when I arrived at COCEMFE, with all my doubts, I felt like a normal person, they understood my situation…”
The machinery was set in motion: “Here, we have disabled people who have the attitude to work. I do a reception, my partner does an initial orientation and then we go deeper,” explains Pepi Bohórquez.
The plan is to create a life itinerary: what do they want to do? What is your situation? What type of businesses are you interested in? How is the market? The prospecting begins. “I explain to them what the market is like and We try to match the reality of their needs and their perspectives», continues Pépi. From there, look for a job. “We prepare the CV, we rehearse how to do the interviews…” The method? Simulation style: “When the person is already clear, we give them many examples of the types of offers that usually come out, we see if they would accept them, if they would not accept them, why yes, why not… To put them in a situation.”
Sometimes, Bohórquez explains, the application is sent if there are offers; Others, it’s the company that calls. Thus, person by person, the network is built which guarantees that an employee, like Cristi, arrives at work happily. There are thousands of them, we remember at the La Caixa Foundation.
42,000
Investments thanks to the La Caixa Foundation
Last year, its Incorpora program generated more than 42,000 insertions work across all its collaborating entities. The entity recalls that “this figure reflects not only the effectiveness and impact of the initiative in the field of socio-professional integration”, but also “the commitment of the 16,000 companies which are committed to inclusion and diversity as a driver of change”. Like the work that just changed Cristi’s life, as she says.
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