To mark the UN’s International Day of Disabled Persons, euronews visited one Belgian company that helps people with disabilities find new work.<br /><br /> Two hundred of its 230 employees are living with a disability of some kind.<br /><br /> Belgium has more than one hundred firms like this one.<br /><br /> Chantal is one of those being trained. She hopes to be recruited full time in the future.<br /><br /> “I’ve been trained from the beginning and now I am training young people who start in a special class in the workplace,” she said.<br /><br /> “They do two years of training and then they are hired if they want to be.”<br /><br /> This firm draws one third of its revenues from public money.<br /><br /> The rest comes from its business activities, notably packaging items for supermarkets.<br /><br /> “The benefit for workers, is that we modify work stations and the work flow according to each person’s disability,” said Hughes Procureur.<br /><br /> The lowest gross hourly salary is 9.50 euros; the highest is 14.50 euros.<br /><br /> The pay is modest, but for many of the workers. It gives them a new lease of life.<br /><br /> Eddy is spending his first day at the carpenter’s workshop. After a two week trial period, he’ll get hired permanently.<br /><br /> “We feel useful once again because sometimes after becoming disabled, we think we’ll never find anything again,” he said. “But we’re happy to find work again. It’s a pleasure.”
