There at least a billion disabled people all over the world, and work is a powerful tool that helps promote integration and break down barriers that often marginalise them. According to the United Nations' International Labour Office (ILO) 785 million working age disabled adults excluded from work are worth between three and seven percent of GDP. The lack of their integration into the working world is an assault on their dignity, but also 'a huge waste of potential for the individual, the community and the entire society'.
The ILO has long called for companies to open their doors to disabled. For decades Enel has integrated it into its Corporate Social Responsibility policy, going beyond the mere fulfilment of a legal obligation. Globally the Group promotes and supports projects and initiatives that aid the integration of disabled people by focusing on their inclusion in the world of employment.
In 2008 Endesa launched Senda, a CSR human resources project which includes the integration of disabled people in work and society as among its five major objectives. The company's work has already begun at universities where, as part of a partnership with the Universia Foundation, it is helping to draw up the Disability and Attention Guide, a snap shot of the situation for disabled students in 76 Spanish universities. Endesa has also signed an agreement with the Adecco Foundation for the assignment of five scholarships to disabled students of the University of Seville in the academic year 2013-2014.
In order to achieve the integration of disabled people in the world of work, Endesa has also hired 50 disabled people over the course of the past three years as part of a partnership agreement signed in 2009 with the ONCE Foundation. This commitment led to Endesa being awarded for its work by the Spanish National Confederation of Employment Centres, which acknowledged the company's exemplary work on breaking down social and physical barriers, in the development of contracts and making products and services more accessible.