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JDC Job Placement Program Restores Dignity to New FatherWhen Argentina experienced economic collapse in December 2001, Quin, 29 years old, became suddenly vulnerable. The government was overthrown, people took to the streets to riot, and Quin and tens of thousands of his contemporaries effectively had their financial security pulled from under them. "I felt completely useless," he painfully recalls, pointing to his little girl, Lali. "I remember those sleepless nights, with fear of lacking food at home to provide for my family." Just as he and approximately 30 percent of Argentine Jewry were being plunged below the poverty line, Quin was also becoming a father for the first time. Quin had for years worked in his father Eduardo’s small textile business; he never had to worry about basic food or shelter. But virtually overnight the young man faced unemployment and had to find other means of survival. He, his wife Maria and their newborn moved in with Quin’s mother-in-law. Quin took on odd jobs such as a car driver, telephone operator and a barber. "I did everything I could find to feed my wife and daughter." With its seven-decade presence in Argentina, JDC was poised to help the devastated community get back on its feet through emergency food, medical care, technical support and other assistance. In partnership with Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) and in collaboration with the Tzedaka Foundation, JDC established a welfare network that at its peak served a caseload of 36,000 Argentine Jews. Facing the challenge of helping to restore economic self-sufficiency to a population that had largely owned businesses and worked in respected professional capacities, JDC and its local partners also established the Ariel Job Center. Through services such as job retraining; resume, interview and placement assistance; and the provision of micro-enterprise loans to for new businesses (banks were not issuing credit), JDC is helping to restore dignified incomes to families who lost not only their jobs but their life savings. Within the Ariel Job Center framework, JDC launched the Wage Subsidies Program (PES) in 2003 to help place candidates from its welfare caseload in appropriate new employment positions. PES subsidizes 30 percent of the applicant’s first year income as incentive for companies to hire qualified candidates who have suffered job loss as a result of the country’s economic crisis, thereby reducing unemployment within the Jewish community. Some 480 people have obtained jobs through the PES program; Quin was one of them. "They helped me so much. I have learned how to make a better resume, how to speak in job interviews…to avoid the ‘I don’t know’ sentence in any interview," he says of the coaching he received through PES. "I learned who I was and what I could give." Today, Quin is on the cusp of securing a permanent position as a doorman in a local neighborhood of Buenos Aires where he is presently a temporary employee. The job will provide the family with health insurance and enable them to rent their own apartment. Four years after economic and governmental implosion, the situation in Argentina is still difficult. The National Institute of Statistics and Census announced in September 2005 that the official unemployment rate is 15.7%, meaning that 15.3 million people who are able to work do not have jobs. According to the Institute, an additional 4.3 million people although employed, are only working on a temporary basis. Through successful employment programs such as PES, JDC and its local partners have reduced their welfare caseload from 36,000 to 24,322 Jews, served by a countrywide network of social assistance centers. "Whatever happens, I am not alone; I feel that I have support," said Quin, proudly displaying one of Lali’s colorful drawings. "The employment program gave me the tools to handle what might come my way." November 2005 |
