Integrating the intellectually disabled into the labor market

Eva Papasotiriou greets customers in the food department of an Athens department store. The 27-year-old is a graduate of the Margarita Special Education Laboratory and the “My Work” program for the integration of people with intellectual disabilities into the Greek labor market. She has been working in the food department of Marks & Spencer since last November. “The point is for the companies to distinguish the potential of our graduates,” says Dimitris Tourlidas, who is responsible for the program, stressing that “we are not interested in being offered positions void of content, out of pity.” A salary came as a pleasant surprise for 38-year-old Yiannis Frementitis, who works at Alpha Bank. “I thought they were making fun of me.” “I didn’t like that until now I had to ask my parents for pocket money,” he says. [Vangelis Zavos]