Case Study from Spain: Meeting with Hemily

Hemily is a woman from Honduras who has been living in Spain for two years. She moved to Spain with her husband and daughter – a baby at that time – fleeing from gang violence and seeking a better future for her family. She was through very hard times due to her irregular administrative situation. Right upon arrival in Spain she found out that finding a job being undocumented was going to be pretty difficult. When she went to the municipal Social Services, she was recommended to leave her CV with a few social enterprises. She was soon contacted by a Social Initiative Cooperative, where she felt immediately at home: ‘In this enterprise you stop feeling excluded’. Since she started working there six months ago, she does cleaning services at private homes, according to the work schedule she is sent by her coordinator. She meets regularly with the support team. As he was a teacher in her home country, the support staff is advising her on the procedures to validate her university degree and providing her with information about education courses she can apply for. Her shifts are accommodated so that she can attend regional language courses for free at a language school provided by the enterprise. ‘I’m very happy. In this enterprise, we are much more than workers; we are persons.’