The cruelty shown double-amputee Pathyelli Sousa de Nascimento by Portimão’s employment centre seems to know no bounds.
The 31-year-old who battled against the horror of losing both legs and six fingers as a result of tick fever has reportedly been strung along for months – desperately waiting for a job she has now been told she cannot have.
As Pathy has told the Resident on many occasions, all she wants now that she has mastered her prosthetic legs is a chance “to feel useful again”.
Last summer she was told by Casa do Povo in Messines that she could work there as soon as the community association got the go-ahead to take her on under a programme jointly-funded with Portimão’s IEFP employment centre.
Now five months and endless conversations later Casa do Povo has heard that the IEFP has refused the programme.
“It is horrible!” the centre’s administrative board president José Carlos de Sousa Araújo told us.
“We cannot believe it ourselves. We didn’t even know how to break the news to Pathy. The government announces it is spending millions on social inclusion, and then when a real case like this comes along, look what it does. Nothing!”
“We are now getting a new report together in a bid to force the IEFP to change its stance.
“In the meantime, we will do everything we can to help Pathy’s situation.
“The family were originally told she could only get a job if she moved closer to the centre. So that is what they did. They now have a rent that is beyond their means – and then they get this bombshell!”
The IEFP’s reason, Sousa Araújo told us, was that Pathy did not “qualify for any programme available” as she was not registered at the job centre.
“Why didn’t they tell us she had to be registered four months ago?” Sousa Araújo’s question hangs in the air.
“It is unspeakable! This girl has been through hell. She is not making anything up. She has no legs! She barely has hands and yet she still wants to work! We want to give her a job. How difficult can it be to allow this to happen?”
Calls to the IEFP have so far met with no answers. The Resident has submitted questions in writing and will update as soon as we get a response.
But as time ticks by, for Pathy the wait has become almost unbearable.
Over the telephone today, all we could hear were sobs as she tried to say she felt she had been totally forgotten. “I don’t know what to do next,” she said.
“This is a story that needs to go on television”, Sousa Araújo affirmed, stressing: “The IEFP’s attitude is just not acceptable. If we could offer Pathy a job without help under an employment programme, we would. But the programme we were going for would see the IEFP footing most of her salary, and without that help we are powerless.
“Pathy needs this!” He added. “It is vital for her to be involved, have a life. We all have to do our best to ensure she gets it”.
By NATASHA DONN natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
