GRATIS / FREE - fuerteventura magazine hoy

40
Año IV - Nº 48 - Mayo | May | Mai - 2010
SOCIEDAD / SOCIAL MATTERS / SOZIALE SACHEN
Rosa Maria del Barrio – Managing director of the Centre South Municipalities’
Mancomunidad
“The entity includes the municipalities of
Antigua, Pájara, Tuineje and Betancuria”
FMHOY - Fuerteventura
At the occasion of the celebration of the Third Intercultural
Encounter celebrated in Gran Tarajal under
the banner “Fuerteventura Mar de Culturas” and with
the project “Centro Sur Integra 2009” as the main
event, we went along in order to find out more about
the organisers and met with Rosa María del Barrio,
the current director of the Centre South Mancomunidad
and a specialist in this line of work as she has
been dealing with those projects since 2002.
Could you please explain to us what the Centre
South Mancomunidad consists of?
The Centre South Mancomunidad was created in
1999. It is a public entity that belongs to four municipalities:
Antigua, Betancuria, Pájara and Tuineje,
which aims to provide a series of common services
to save costs such as access to various programmes
and subventions that municipalities could not get if
they applied alone.
Along the year, we carry out many projects and provide
multiple services. Around 75% of our budget come
from subventions from the Canarian Employment
Service that are funds from Europe, the Canarian
Government an Fuerteventura’s Cabildo, and 25%
are our own funds.
Which is the Mancomunidad’s main tasks?
We have a social department that consists of a
team of specialists in care for minors that are in a risk
situation, for all four Ayuntamientos, we also provide
legal advice to help with cohabitation and family life.
A lawyer attends people who require this service in
all four municipalities.
Thanks to an agreement with the Cabildo, we manage
the Psycho-social Rehabilitation Day Centre in Gran
Tarajal. And finally, there is the “Centro Sur Intergra”
project that is financed by the Canarian Government’s
Immigration vice-council. It takes place once a year
and tends to coincide with the end of the year and
beginning of the next.
This programme offers attention to immigrants by
giving them legal advice to obtain documents as well
as creating activities that contribute to their sociocul-
tural integration such as basic Spanish lessons, handcraft
workshops, football tournaments, to name a few.
We have noticed that the brochure of the Third
Inter-cultural Encounter has benefited from a
wide artistic participation and varied projects.
It really went well and we got the participation of over
400 people and folkloric demonstrations from various
countries as well as music or sports activities, etc.
Do those projects take place in Gran Tarajal do
they move from one municipality to another?
The Day Centre of Gran Tarajal is the only facility
that is central, all the other social related services
are organised by appointment which means that
technicians travel to whichever municipality their
services are required. For example Spanish classes
have been organised in El Castillo, Gran Tarajal and
Costa Calma where they are most required.
The service of animal recovery is united for all
four Ayuntamientos and the centre is situated in the
municipality of Tuineje.
The Mancomunidad also has an employment and
local development agency with three agents who
provide business assessment, activities related to
training and employment, like for example a job group
that deals with all different kinds of offers.
So, the job group does not belong to I.N.E.M.?
No, they are separate, but we always advise people
to write to the job centre as well.
The Mancomunidad Agency also takes care of creating
projects that seek new training and employment
opportunities which are then submitted to the Canarian
Employment Service for approval and funding.
What do those projects consist of?
They can be agreements or employment schoolworkshops.
Students sign a professional training
contract and receive a wage that varies for schools
for young people aged between 16 and 24 years of
age and for workshops for people aged over 25.
We could say that students become employees of
the Mancomunidad during their training. It is mandatory
for them to be residents in one of the four
municipalities. On the other hand young people are
prepared before their first job and other job opportunities
are proposed to adults who are not successful
in the field that they had initially chosen.
What is the procedure for people who would like
to have access to those workshops and schools?
First of all they must be registered at the job centre
as this is where candidates are selected according to
their profile for the courses that we propose. Those
courses and projects are based on their necessities
which are detected by the employment and local
development agency. We have organised courses on
rehabilitation and maintenance of buildings, on safety
and emergencies, on gardening and restoration of
derelict areas, on tourism promotion, etc. Recently we
finalised the project called O.P.E.A. orientation for employment
and self-employment, where we attended
over 300 people, and advised them on how to create
a CV, a job interview, how to register as self-employed,
which funding they can get, etc.
We have now submitted another two projects aimed
at creating job opportunities for which we are waiting
to receive approval.