When we talk about emigration, we talk about people with very different life stories and each one with very personal reasons that lead them to leave their entire lives behind to start from scratch in another country. However, they all have a common goal: to improve their quality of life.
Today we present two new testimonies, that of Blanca Elena who comes from Venezuela and Evelyn who comes from Nicaragua who, thanks to their effort and desire to get ahead, have managed to take the first steps to advance in their new life.
Evelyn had a degree in marketing and marketing. She worked in a bank and in sales, but she met her husband, and when they were married, he brought her to Spain.
In the case of Blanca Elena, her situation in Venezuela was different. She and her family had been trying to come here for 5 years in search of a better quality of life, especially for her daughters.
What pushes you to make the decision to emigrate?
(Evelyn)- My husband already lived in Spain and, since the situation in Nicaragua was very bad, I decided to come to improve my situation. It’s true that I wasn’t at all bad there because I had a job, a house and a family.
(Blanca Elena)- We go through very, very difficult situations, primarily due to insecurity, and the difficulty in acquiring food and medicine. Nowadays, no one can afford to get sick, because not even private insurance works anymore. My husband, my 3 daughters and I became desperate, we couldn’t take it anymore because we went through very, very delicate situations. The salary in the public sectors was $4 a month and no one lives on that money, so we had to have two or three jobs: working in the public sector and working in the private sector. With everything and that, you could reach $30 a month with which if you ate you didn’t pay for school, and if you paid for school, you didn’t eat.
How do you experience your arrival in Spain?
(Evelyn)- The first sensation was that of doing a job that you had never done before, completely changing scenery, getting used to another culture, although Spanish is spoken well here, Galician is also spoken, it was more than anything the change of culture, work environment and all that.
(Blanca Elena) – As soon as we stepped into the airport we left in Madrid, I thanked God mainly because I felt alive, I felt that I had the possibility of raising my daughters forward, I felt that we were going to have a totally different life than the one we had in Venezuela and that I was in a land where I knew we were going to get ahead.
– Why do you come into contact with Cáritas?
(Evelyn) – I arrived in Spain in 2013 and since then, I have been working, but COVID arrived and they did not renew my contract. I had been in that home help company for a very short time, and I had a temporary contract, so they did not renew me as they had planned before the pandemic. As I was in a delicate financial situation, a friend recommended that I approach Cáritas because they also gave courses and helped with job placement, and also gave aid for food, electricity or rent payments.
(Blanca Elena)- My first contact was because our hands were a little tied. A Venezuelan girl I met at the police appointment told me about Cáritas, and she told me to come here and they could give me the support I needed at that moment. I can guarantee that from the first day I walked here it was a blessing.
What was your experience with Cáritas?
(Evelyn)- I knocked on the door of Cáritas and it was fine. I was in a very difficult situation at that time and Cáritas opened the doors to me and, although at that time there was no personal contact and it was by phone because it was during the time of COVID, they looked for a way to help me, they looked for a solution and I They provided food aid at that time and for me it was a blessing. The truth is that I am very grateful to them, and I thank God and there is also other support, because I had problems with the company because I became pregnant and they fired me without paying me what I was owed, and they opened the doors to me again in the economic part, with food, but also in the psychological part with my eldest son, and the emotional help was very important. A peace and tranquility. Right now I am on maternity leave, but for me emotional and psychological support for my son is the most important thing.
(Blanca Elena)- From the first moment she was very good. I have been in Spain for 8 months, I went in person and the lady who attended me at the reception who gave me my first appointment was excellent, very good treatment, they received me very well. From there they gave us another appointment to explain what Cáritas is, how it works and from there they gave me an appointment with my social worker who, to this day, is wonderful. She is a wonderful human being, they have helped me with everything: they have helped me with the financial part, mainly with the rent of the apartment, they have helped me with food. Also, they have helped me with psychological support for the girls and with reinforcement classes, since one arrived in the 3rd year of ESO and was having problems with some subject, and they have been very concerned about helping her with private classes and that. With course issues, they have helped us a lot to be able to get started in the work part, since we have to have knowledge of how to work here, in many things.
Now that you have achieved greater stability, what are the next goals you want to achieve?
(Evelyn)- My goal is to emerge at a professional and professional level, to move forward with what they have given me and continue to give me, and to take advantage of all the opportunities that appear.
(Blanca Elena)- What I need is for my work permit to be activated to start working. We really want to move forward because these 8 months here have been a great blessing because I have taken them hand in hand with Cáritas, they have never left me alone. And I really want to start working, and to be able to help many people as they also helped me.
#Blanca #Elena #arrived #Spain #felt #alive #felt #possibility #raising #daughters
