Down Mérida helps 120 families in early care and training

Yellow is the color of Down Mérida. And yesterday the arcades of the Plaza de España were filled with yellow flowers.

They had to take shelter from the rain at noon, but the association did not want to withdraw due to its desire to give visibility to the work they do in the city.

In the afternoon, they held an official act in Santo Domingo for World Down Syndrome Day. They invited other groups and public officials to listen to their manifesto. “And as citizens with full rights and obligations, we demand, whatever our age, that you count on us as an active part of society,” they said.

María Morales, the director of Down Mérida, explains that they offer services as a concerted center of the Junta de Extremadura. They serve 32 families in the city with Down people but their specialization also allows them to reach 120 families with other types of intellectual diversity.

They work the full itinerary. From early attention to the smallest or training for professional insertion in the elderly. “We want to continue working on personality training adjusted to people with Down syndrome and intellectual diversity.” Training, she explains, is the first step towards labor integration and one more step towards achieving the final goal: independent living in shared flats.

The dwellings are the alternative to the residences and the supervised flats that they propose. It is not, according to the director, that there are caregivers, but to offer an independent way of life with mediators. “These housing projects represent a change in mentality, we are going little by little because the pandemic forced us to stop a bit.”

The director of Down Mérida believes it is necessary for users to continue in their surroundings, close to their families and friends.

That is why they have a home in which they prepare users for an independent life without caregivers, only with mediators.

The problem is that this common life project was incompatible with health restrictions.

That is why it will resume again after the summer. Some users who could participate in this model are now training in a Fundación Once program that ends in June.

In the workplace, the association has a guidance service that helps them find a job. First there is an interview to find out your level of education and your interests. According to this interview, they then follow an itinerary adjusted to the possibilities. In general, explains the director, they adapt well to customer service jobs and routine tasks.

Those who have difficulty making themselves understood opt for stores such as Decathlon or Carrefour, where they usually work as stockers or cashiers. Also in auxiliary tasks of the administration as ordinances in the Assembly, in the ministries or in the schools. “Routine tasks, which are not improvised, give them a lot of security.”

Others get a job in the hotel industry as kitchen assistants or as waiters, removing cutlery and cleaning tables.