Aliza In The Field

It’s been a while since I updated, but Europe has been a very different experience than Morocco, and we have been keeping very busy indeed! Last week in Madrid, Shonali started out by visiting a project of Fundación Juan XXIII, our partner through the GG satellite office in London, GlobalGiving UK.

Fundación Juan provides job and IT training to mentally disabled adults in Madrid. Spain does not have the vast social worker system that the US does, so these individuals are often left to be cared for by their families with very little instruction or assistance after they finish the school system at 18. At the FJ center in Madrid, they get job training, grooming and hygiene classes (so they can prepare to live alone), access to gym and arts facilities, and training in a variety of computer and IT skills so they can enter the job market. They also get job training to work in the hospitality industry (restaurants, hotels, etc.), and there is even a cafe on the premises for them to practice - which we visited with Laura, the lovely project leader.

Read more about and donate to this GlobalGiving project here: http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/it-space-for-learning-disabled-people-in-madrid/

Aliza is in Morocco, Spain and France as a part of GlobalGiving’s In The Field program. Follow along at alizainthefield.tumblr.com or on Twitter @alizaapp.