Cuban families descended from Zamora have the opportunity to settle in the Spanish province with the Reto Zamora program, a project announced this Tuesday by the Junta de Castilla y León (region to which this northwestern city belongs). to attract new neighbors for one of the most depopulated areas across the country.
The €500,000 plan would allow between 15 and 20 families of Zamorano descent who went to Cuba, Mexico and Argentina to settle in Spain with an employment contract in the care sector.
“All are guaranteed the necessary training at source to become a personal assistant and once here they can opt for further training to carry out their work in different institutions,” said Isabel Blanco presenting the project . Family and Equal Opportunity Advisor.
The families receive financial support for the first three months to ensure their settlement, in addition to a housing solution through social rents, in cooperation with the municipalities and the board as intermediaries. Travel to Spain and the provinces – an hour and a half by high-speed train from Madrid or three by bus – is also covered by the project.
Those entering the plan must formalize commitments to permanence and training within the care sector
In turn, those who enter the plan must make formal commitments to remain in the care sector and continue their education. In this sense, the applicants will be included in another project that has been working for months under the name Network Care, which aims to offer individual care to the elderly, dependent, disabled or chronically ill in residential centers and at home.
Blanco explained that the board has noticed that 25% of contracts to provide personal assistance services in the rural world are awarded to migrants, so the integration of both plans updates the strategy while bringing the international focus to the province of Spain, which has been expanding since 1960s is in a demographic crisis.
María Antonia Rabanillo, President of the Council of Spanish Residents in Cuba, the Association of Castilian and Leonese Societies and the Colony of Zamorana in Cuba, during a visit to Zamora, explained that there are around 2,000 residents on the island, rooted in the province.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, of the 183,676 Castilians and Leonese living abroad, 9,712 live in Cuba.
Zamora, 255 kilometers from the capital, is the oldest Spanish province with an average age of the population of over 51 years. It’s also one of the most demographically dispersed areas, with 15 people per square kilometer, many in towns with fewer than 100 residents.
Its advantages, in turn, include its prices, with the cheapest houses in the country, or its natural heritage, in which the Sierra de la Culebra stands out – one of the main lungs of Spain – or Lake Sanabria, the largest of Europe’s largest glaciers.
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