Inlayapas Asociación, Grenada, Andalusia

Background

INLAYAPAS (INserción LAboral Y Acompañamiento PAStoral – Labour Insertion and Pastoral Accompaniment) is at the service of the immigrant population, especially women, from an educational, labour and pastoral perspective.

The INLAYAPAS Association cares for relationships, accompaniment and follow-up from a believer perspective, proper to religious life, which other non-denominational organisations cannot attend to. However, it is the desire and project of the association to work in collaboration with all these organisations.

In the world of immigration, the following is observed:

• The progressive feminisation of immigration, as more and more immigrant women are arriving in Andalusia.
• The lack or scarce development of the social skills necessary for their insertion into the labour market.
• The increase in the Latin American population who, in their place of origin, lived and shared their faith and who are likely to want to be accompanied in their faith.
• After the financial crisis of 2008, the construction sector in Spain suffered considerably and unemployment, particularly among migrants, increased. In addition, for migrant women seeking employment, opportunities tended to be as domestic workers/caregivers for the elderly.

Objective

In this multicultural environment we want to contribute to the creation of a fairer and more equitable society and from this point of view, we understand education for integration as the main engine for change and the basic tool for each person to be an active protagonist in the construction of their personal and community project.

We offer support, accompaniment and labour and pastoral monitoring to immigrant women, as well as human and spiritual formation, promoting mutual coexistence and interculturality so that they themselves become main actors in the new plural society of Grenada that is already emerging.

The group of immigrant women is conceived as a key part in the construction of a society based on justice and equality of all people and, for this reason, INLAYAPAS aims to compensate the disadvantages of this group in order to facilitate their integration, in particular their integration into society.

Activities

I. Actions that improve integration and employability:

• Language classes: courses focus on learning Spanish. English and French classes are also given for those who already master the local language.
• Spanish cuisine workshops: Spanish gastronomy knowledge is acquired; the language related to food is improved, learning how to handle electrical appliances. 
• Basic computer training.
• Sewing workshops.
• Basic courses in geriatrics. 

II. Teaching of home economics

III. Support, accompaniment, counselling and follow-up

IV. Intercultural and interreligious activities: women's day, local festivities, cultural visits to the city.

V. Participation of migrant women in programme planning.

VI. Collaboration with other institutions and bodies: Maintaining good relations with different entities such as the Red Cross, Pro housing, in order to be able to attend to people they help. With other entities to come and give courses or volunteers such as the language school in Grenada.

 

Results

Spanish cooking courses:

• Two Spanish cooking courses of 37 and 47 participants each were held from October to June, two hours per week. (in 2013 also men were enrolled in order to promote gender equality).
• Spanish recipes were entered into electronic archives.
• Compiled a Spanish recipe book. Sales of copies of the Spanish recipe book were made.
• Muslim women manipulated typical Spanish meat products (pork).
• Acquired the skill of Spanish cooking as an important element for employability and social integration.
• Some of the participants found a job as cooks.

Computer skills:

• A computer course of 8 lessons (1.5 hours each) was scheduled for 12 weeks.

 

Migrant women gained more self-esteem, confidence and autonomy in their daily routine by improving their language skills and their knowledge of local habits.

Migrant women, with increased self-esteem and confidence, overcome the fears and grief of having immigrated.

Migrant women acquired the skills to function in society in the functional sphere and to understand the uses, customs and norms, and in accessing resources and social services in general, as well as in defending their rights and fulfilling their duties.

Intercultural, interreligious and intergeneric recognition.

99% of the students who took the Spanish citizenship exam successfully passed it (February 2018).

29 participants dropped out of the cooking course due to work or moving to another city.

 

Notes

• In the first years of the association's activity, once a month on Sundays, there was a day for the volunteers and users of the association to get to know each other. It was a very rich moment where they got to know each other in a different way, the families were involved and this area was highly valued by both the volunteers and the women. There is always the nostalgia of being able to implement it again.
• As we are a small association, subsidies from banks, for example, are not easy to obtain.
• Finding a good professional to be able to keep the accounts or to be aware of the different grants that come out and to prepare the paperwork.
• With the Covid pandemic (2020), we had to close and when we reopened we had to consider a smaller number of people in the groups to maintain the safety of participants and volunteers; restarting is always costly.
• The follow-up of people is not always easy, some are unstable and with more people, the quality of each person can be lost and more workshops can be more important.

 

People being served : Women

Number of participants : 251-500

Project status : Ongoing

Focus of the project : People

JPIC Imperative :

UN Sustainable Development Goals :