Argentina Restoring Jobs and Dignity through Innovative Subsidy Program

"I’ve been through a lot, but the worst was seeing my children sleep on the floor," says Mariela, sheepishly from behind her office desk at Beit Avot – Casa de Los Abuelos elderly home where she is the new administrator. "One doesn’t recover easily from that."

Six years ago, Mariela worked as a Public Relations professional for DAEWO cars. She and her two sons – Manuel, 22, and Alejandro, 14 – lived comfortably on her income of 750 pesos per month (then $750 USD). The family rented an apartment in Buenos Aires and the boys attended Jewish day school.

But as deteriorating economic conditions in Argentina sent the demand for import cars plummeting, Mariela found herself in a futile job search. The prospects of finding respectable employment were bleak. "From there, things were horrible," she recalls.

Mariela scrounged for job opportunities. She applied her two years of Special Education studies to tutoring elementary school students at home in math, language, and other subjects. She earned only 4 pesos (approximately $1 USD at the time) per one-hour class. "We couldn’t afford anything on this money so I began cooking typical Sephardic Shabbat meals for families," says Mariela. "My sons always liked the way I cooked."

Though successful for a time, as orders increased so did the expense of the groceries; Mariela could not afford to lay out the money for cooking ingredients and had to significantly limit the number of meals she prepared.

She also could not pay the rent, bills, or her sons’ tuitions. Manuel was forced to drop out of school his senior year; he made attempts to work with a friend in film production. And Mariela had to uproot Alejandro, then 10, to a different Jewish school where they gave him a scholarship.

After numerous failed attempts at securing an income, Mariela hit rock bottom. She was kicked out of her apartment, owing eight months back rent. With nowhere left to go, she and the boys slept on the floor in the sitting room of her parents’ one-bedroom apartment for a year and a half. "My kids never said one bad thing the whole time," says Mariela. "They were so supportive of their mom and didn’t complain – not even once."

To ensure that the family’s basic needs were met, JDC provided them food vouchers and kosher meat. Further help came from a loan from Mariela’s brothers that enabled her to move with the boys into a rental apartment at the beginning of last year. A few months later, she received a letter from the local JDC office inviting her to submit a resume for assistance with job placement. "I remembered that one of my first jobs was working with the elderly," says Mariela, who listed this information on her resume.

In September, Mariela was placed as the head administrator of Beit Avot elderly home in Buenos Aires through JDC’s wage subsidy program, PES: Programa de Empleo Subsidiado. A joint effort of JDC and Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) with the collaboration of TzedakáV Foundation, PES subsidizes 30% of the applicant’s income during the first year of employment, thus giving incentive for companies to hire qualified candidates who have suffered job loss as a result of the country’s economic crisis.

Mariela now manages the personnel, addresses clients’ needs, pays suppliers, and oversees the daily operations of the elderly home. "The first thing you get back is dignity and a different way of seeing life," says Mariela of her new position, which also provides medical coverage for her sons. Mariela is happy that she can afford her youngest, Alejandro, private music lessons to pursue his dream of playing piano.

"I feel proud for having not given up, for trying to go on…for having passed this test," says Mariela. But it has been a bittersweet triumph since her oldest son Manuel has yet to receive his high school diploma. "This is my deepest regret, and we continue to work on it." This summer Manuel will be a counselor for a Birthright Israel trip.

In the meantime, Mariela is grateful to have a steady job that she enjoys, and an income that provides for her family. "I am the same person – and to my children I am the same mother – but it shows them that they can hope for more, for better, and that their kids won’t ever have to sleep on the floor."