Algarve companies from the most diverse areas, from the innovation and technology sector to tourism, are supporting their Ukrainian employees and their families and offering to integrate refugees who choose the Algarve as a destination in their team.
«We have been contacted by several companies here in the Algarve and there are also proposals from the North. We will present these proposals to the people, when they are here, and they will decide what they want», he revealed to the Sul Informação Igor Korbeliak, president of the Association of Ukrainians in the Algarve, who has also realized that the first refugees must arrive in the Algarve in the next few days.
This is not, as can be seen, a reality that is only experienced in the Algarve, but that extends to the entire country.
On Monday, the Government launched the “Portugal for Ukraine” initiative, which aims to “support Ukrainian citizens who, for reasons of armed conflict and humanitarian reasons, wish to reside in Portugal”.
This program has several dimensions, including employment. For this, it was launched an online form through which companies can express to the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) their intention to hire people who are fleeing the war.
Second announced yesterday Ana Mendes Godinho, Minister of Labor and Social Security, more than 2000 job offers have already been uploaded to the IEFP website, which will then be translated into Ukrainian.
The Algarve Evolution business association was one of the first to take the initiative and ask its members about the availability of integrating people from Ukraine into their teams.
«We already have between 15 and 20 job openings, in areas such as technological development, project management and a number of functions. There were several companies that showed interest in welcoming and hiring”, said to our newspaper Miguel Fernandes, president of this association that brings together Algarve companies in the area of new technologies.
"We are also in articulation with other networks at the national level, because it makes no sense for each one to be working for their own side", he added.
But this authentic wave of solidarity goes much further than simple job offers. There are entrepreneurs committed to helping employees bring family members from Ukraine and welcome them to the Algarve.
“For now, what we are doing is trying to understand what the needs of the Ukrainians who work with us and their families are. It is important, first of all, to help those who are close to us and their families, who are trying to leave and have not yet managed to reach Poland", he illustrated to the Sul Informação João Soares, director of the D. José Beach Hotel, in Quarteira, and delegate of the Associação Associação da Hotelaria de Portugal (AHP) in the Algarve.
“We have been talking to our employees. We have six Ukrainians here at our hotel. As soon as they are sure what kind of help their families need, we will do everything within our means to give them the necessary support”, he assured.
As soon as these people and other refugees who may come to the Algarve are settled and their situation stabilized – «people will not arrive here and start working the next day, of course» -, this entrepreneur, as well as other partners of AHP, will have «all the opening to integrate them in our teams».
«And it is to earn the same as any other worker with the same functions, there will be no use here», highlighted João Soares.
The entrepreneur has no doubt that these are people who will adapt quickly and who can be an asset.
“Most hotels in the region have Ukrainians on their teams. They are a very strong community in the Algarve and they are very well integrated », he said.
However, Maria's daughters and grandchildren have already been in the Algarve since yesterday, a Ukrainian employee of the well-known restaurant Noélia, in Cabanas de Tavira.
This was the culmination of a solidarity action that had its most visible face in Noélia Jerónimo, chef and owner of the restaurant, who, through social networks, appealed for help and reported on the progress of the trip and the tribulations of the refugees.
Timing, one of the largest temporary work companies in the Algarve, has also announced that it will help its Ukrainian employees.
«Timing Portugal will contact all current and former employees of Ukrainian nationality, who are still quite a few, informing them of our availability to help and support them in everything we can», published Ricardo Mariano, the owner, on social media. from the company.
The União de Misericórdias de Portugal also appealed to its members from all over the country to see what availability they would have to welcome Ukrainian citizens into their staff, a work that the Secretariat of the Misericórdias do Algarve is already carrying out, like Armindo Vicente, its president, had already revealed to Sul Informação.
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