41 companies, including 18 public entities and 23 private companies, received a certificate of appreciation for offering the possibility to 64 persons with disability to gain job experience within their entity. This was possible by participating in the Me2 project, a project co-financed by the European Union – European Social Fund, and led by the Foundation for Social Welfare Services with ETC and KNP as project partners.

During this activity, the Minister for Justice, Public Dialogue and the Family spoke about the government’s commitment to create more job opportunities for persons with disability. He said that persons with disability have a lot to offer to society, and that their integration into the labour market benefits both themselves and the companies that offer them employment. In this context, Hon. Said thanked the 41 private and public entities that participated in the project by providing work opportunities and job exposures to persons with disability.

Minister Chris Said also referred to the current ETC scheme for the Local Councils and said that thanks to such initiative around 80 persons with disability and who are registering for work, will have the opportunity to be employed for three years with the Local Councils. Payment will be according to the number of hours worked and based on the national minimum wage.

During her address Ms Sina Bugeja, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, commended these companies for their commitment and thanked them for recognising the potential of persons with disability, for implementing the equality principle, and offering them job exposure. Ms Bugeja said that the restrictions and stigma associated with disability are just an unjust stereotype portrayed by society. Thus we need to take a step forward to assist persons with disability to be fully and equally integrated, in particular within the labour market. Ms Bugeja also called for other companies and entities to take this challenge and employ persons with disability.

Mr Stephen Vella, Me2 Project Leader, said that when a person with disability is given the opportunity to excel in his/her abilities the success achieved doubles since both the person and society benefit. The Me2 project experience is a clear example where collaboration between different entities evolved in practical initiatives where the obstacles that were hindering persons with disability to show their skills were prevailed. Thus these persons can now be employed by various companies.

There were 64 persons with disability – 38 males and 26 females – who benefited from job exposures as part of the Me2 project. At present, there are 17 persons with disability out of these 64 who are still benefiting from job exposure with various companies.

The Me2 project also employs 23 Support Workers. Their role is to guide persons with disability in their work, offer them practical assistance such as accompanying them to work on time, assist them in using public transport, and guide them during training at the place of work. Thanks to these experiences, clients acquire new skills which they can use in future employment. Moreover, these persons could also understand further that they have something to offer to society as well as the concept of independent living since they would be in a better position to sustain themselves.

The Me2 project, which is led by the Foundation for Social Welfare Services in collaboration with KNPD and ETC, has achieved double the results predicted, reaching 430 persons with disability. Moreover, as a result of this project, a cooperative was setup which is currently training and employing persons with disability and is providing services to both the private and public sectors.

For more information about the Me2 project, the public may visit www.sapport.gov.mt.

Permalink: 41 companies provide job exposure to disabled persons