María Jesús Campos is 47 years old and has three children, one of them with an 86% disability. She also suffers from a disability, in her case 76% of her. A neighbor of Barranco Grande is one of the mothers she has in the CEO Bethencourt and Molina Her school of reference, the same one where this year, she has acquired basic tools for her personal and professional development, where she has learned to listen and to be listened to, and where she has given a new impetus to her life. A change that is noticeable in her smile, in the joy with which she talks about burmagen, the program that has allowed him to be more self-sufficient. “María José called me to offer me the help of the program and thanks to her I have learned to use different computer applications, to search for certificates online, to request an appointment with the City Council, with Housing, and also thanks to her and Coordicanarias I was able to send all the documentation for a job interview at Sinpromi. The project has filled me with enthusiasm”, he says in one breath. Because that is Birmagen, illusion and empowerment, as defined by the soul of this pilot project that Coordicanarias is developing with CEO Bethencourt y Molina, María José Delgado. There the figure of the social integrator has been launched, which comes to add to that of the educator and the counselor, with whom the center already has, and whose function is none other than to act as a mediator between the students, the teachers and the families.
María Jesús’s is one of the many different profiles that exist in the school and that have been addressed since this pilot project, explains María José, who wants to be precise when explaining what Birmagen does. “Not only have we dealt with this link to training, and job search, or to reduce the digital divide, we have also worked with families to improve school performance, reduce absenteeism, and improve family life.” She does not want to forget anyone, so she appreciates the collaboration of the management team, the social educator, Roboan, and the counselor, María Faig, who is also present in the conversation. She also appreciates the support of the Primary teachers Jenny and Naty, and the Secondary teacher, Elva.
“Not only have we helped to promote personal autonomy, but we also realized that beyond providing that practical help, a figure was also needed just to listen. Many families told us, look today at least I have vented,” says María José.
The work of this integrator has multiplied, and from the initial 30 families that were to be attended to, it has grown to more than 70. “Being a mother is not easy and if you also have adolescent children it costs a little more. We accompany them, we give them advice on how to face this stage, but we also help them when it comes to doing paperwork, we encourage them to train…”.
Precisely in the training section “we realized that with the families that we intervened, more than half did not know what the permanent key was, and we took care of making the appointments so that they could obtain them”.
The intervention with vulnerable families has also been possible thanks to the “alliance” that Birmagen has established with the City Council’s Children’s teams, “a job that I admit I did not expect to do, that of working with families at risk. Thanks to the Councilor for Social Action, Rosario González, who provided us with this contact, we were able to work with the teams on very complicated cases”, admits the social integrator.
Undoubtedly, these cases have been the most complicated to face, and proof of this is the gratitude that many of these families have extended to María José. This was done by a father with two children, who was deeply grateful for the support provided by Birmagen: “It is very difficult to define what the work carried out by the Birmagen project has meant and more precisely because of the constant and sincere concern of the social integrator. The support and encouragement that they have given to the children and to me has been decisive in knowing that we are not alone in the serious problem that we have and that this immense rope that is affection in everything we do has given us encouragement in the moment we need it most.”
“The project was born thinking of specific needs and as it grew, we realized that there was a need to cover others such as providing emotional support, for example with mothers who had not worked for a while, with a degree, and we already encouraged them to return to the labor market, and they have signed up for projects, and then with Coordicanarias we have referred people with disabilities to projects in which they can find employment”.
But María José has gone a little further and provided help to families in the processing of aid such as the Minimum Vital Income, or the 200-euro checks granted by the Government, requesting more than 35.
The counselor, María Feig, listens attentively to María José’s words, and affirms that she reaches “where we cannot reach”. “When the project began -he continues- he asked us to choose families who could participate, and the truth is that the list was long, so we made a pre-selection, with families with social needs, vulnerability, and also those in which we had detected an adolescence conflictive”.
María explains that “from counseling we talk to the family, we listen to them, but we don’t get to problems such as processing aid, requesting certificates, or even registering. Birmagen has given us a lot because it is also active during non-school hours, with a center that opens in the afternoons to listen to families”.
“There are many people having a hard time”, points out María José, “and not only in the socioeconomic aspect, but also in the affective part, of rapprochement, of what to do with the adolescent girl…”. For this reason, an important part of the program are the inclusive leisure activities, among which the batucada has become the real star.
“This activity has allowed us that children of any situation have found themselves in a music activity, not just vulnerable families. When the batucada was opened to all the students, we were surprised to see how all the boys, with their different problems, related and generated a committed group that gets along well… Even the music teacher adapted her classes so that the batucada would form part of your program. It has been a true bridge between the center and the families, if they have even gone on tour”, comments María.
María José does not want to miss the opportunity to express what the project has done for her. “It has been something very emotional for me. It’s all a matter of encouraging families, because everyone, at any time, can find themselves discouraged and depressed for personal reasons, not just economic ones, but the project has motivated me personally knowing that I have been able to move families forward in every way, above all in returning to excite and empower families”.
From the direction of the center, another María José, this one with the last name Zamorín, admits that the Birmagen pilot project has been like finding the missing piece of the puzzle. “We have many projects where we work with the students, but the families always remain a little there in no man’s land. With the other projects it is true that they do workshops, depending on the needs of each student, but with Birmagen the three fundamental pillars are worked on: the students, the teachers and the families”.
He admits that he was unaware of the figure of the social integrator, and has been surprised by how well it has worked, for which reason they have asked that the project be reissued.
Together with María José Zamorín, in this process are the head of studies, Sonia Rodríguez, and the secretary of the center, Héctor Morales.
María Jesús, the visible face of the 73 families that have received support
María Jesús is the visible face of the 73 families that the Birmagen project has managed to help, which was initially going to be aimed at 30 families. In her case, she has learned to be more independent and has even been able to find a job.
