Script:
A bustling downtown Buenos Aires belies a city that is still coping with the after-effects of the worst financial crisis in its history.
Not far from the city centre it’s a different world. But that won’t keep Veronica Mendez from making a decent living to support her family….
Verónica Mendez, AREA Beneficiary
I didn't work, I was a housewife and I felt like starting something that would be a personal challenge because I had never worked... I am comfortable in the kitchen and I thought it was a way of testing things, doing something for myself and seeing what became of it.
Working with the Padre Mario Foundation, Italian funding and Argentina’s Ministry of Labour, the International Labour Organization helps identify much-needed training through its AREA programme to give women like Veronica access to the jobs in demand.
Alexis Hernán Soria, Catering Teacher
The idea is for young people to arrive here, really learn a profession and have the possibility of entering today's food and catering industry, taking advantage of the fact that the high value of the euro against the Argentine peso makes this industry very competitive.
Tourism is booming in Argentina and decent jobs with good wages and benefits are there for those with skills. According to a recent ILO report, more women are working in Latin America, but the jobs available to them tend to be in the informal economy where their work is low paid and unprotected. With the right training, women can find their way to those better jobs in the formal economy.
Cristina Isolani, Director, NH City Hotel
It's a formal job where they get a regular monthly salary and have the same benefits of any other person studying hotel management.
Though getting to those coveted jobs in the city can seem like an endless journey, for women like Veronica, it is well worth the effort.
Her job may be a distant dream, but at least for Veronica, it is no longer an impossible one.
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