A complete furniture factory, Spain

A major Spanish NGO has created 12 service centres employing more than 800 handicapped persons who fill 183 service contracts (104).

In Cabra, Andalusia, they run a commercial furniture factory employing 212 persons, the vast majority having had long stays in psychiatric hospitals. The factory is very modern and has several separate assembly chains where the needs of individual workers are taken into account. There is also a large showroom and the products are sent throughout Europe and even to America.

Most workers live where the NGO is located and they are very well accepted owing, among other things, to the constant cooperation between the city council and the workshop leaders. Seventy workers live in an Andalusian type of residence with a swimming pool next to the factory.

The NGO also has a research centre affiliated to the University of Cordoba where the emphasis is placed on scientific and technical research in rehabilitation with emphasis on computer technologies.

All workshop workers receive salaries equivalent to those of workers in regular industries. The workshop is 90% self‑financing.

Like all European programmes mentioned here, this NGO receives material help within the framework of the Horizon and Helios 1 and 2 programmes put together by the EU.

Source: Harnois, G. and Gabriel, P., Mental Health and Work: Impact, Issues and Good Practices. WHO/ILO Monograph. Geneva 2000