News from Poland:
The Polish team Fundacja Sowelo started developing our own version of a sensitizing city tour. Our experts designed the route and evaluated the accessibility of the various attractions. Now the tour is in the testing phase.
We are excited about the possibilities and ideas that arise as we work together on the project.
“I never used to care about what was going on behind my back, but while sitting in a wheelchair it has become the most important thing”
“Somehow it never occurred to me that you not only have to go up a ramp, but also down. And it’s scary in a wheelchair”
“I will look at the world in a completely different way after trying the white cane”
A large international team is taking these experiences home with them by trying the People First Association’s Hidden City Tor Tour again. (https://peoplefirst.hu/blog-post/rejtett-varos-tor-tour-a/)
Once again, they will pass on to many people those useful experiences that are not enough to say, they must be lived!
The team, coming from several countries, participated in a conference entitled “Disabilities and abilities framed by context” in the framework of the EDUC project of the University of Pécs/Hungary. At this conference Veronika Pataki, president of People First Association, presented our Accessible Pécs Database (https://peoplefirst.hu/akadalymentes-pecs/) to the international audience. The additional programme of the conference (MICE-Tourism) was the Hidden City Tor-Tour in the evening, led by our vice-president Gergő Berkes in his usual uplifting mood.
This is a fundamental objective for us, to offer our Hidden City Tor Tour as an accompanying professional programme for conferences, meetings and events in the framework of MICE Tourism. This programme on 16. January is a good example of this.
“I never used to care about what was going on behind my back, but while sitting in a wheelchair it has become the most important thing”
“Somehow it never occurred to me that you not only have to go up a ramp, but also down. And it’s scary in a wheelchair”
“I will look at the world in a completely different way after trying the white cane”
A large international team is taking home these experiences by trying our Hidden City Tor-Tour once again. (https://peoplefirst.hu/blog-post/rejtett-varos-tor-tour-a/)
Once again, they will pass on to many people those useful experiences that are not enough to say, they must be lived!
The team, coming from several countries, participated in a conference entitled “Disabilities and abilities framed by context” in the framework of the EDUC project of the University of Pécs. At this conference Veronika Pataki, president of our association, presented our Accessible Pécs Database (https://peoplefirst.hu/akadalymentes-pecs/) to the international audience. The additional programme of the conference (MICE) was the Hidden City Tor-Tour in the evening, led by our vice-president Gergő Berkes in his usual uplifting mood.
On the next day of the conference, we launched a series of discussions with the faculty of the University of Pécs and three invited NGOs, including People First, in the framework of the EDUC programme. The topic of this discussion was the cooperation of several international universities in the development of their services, with a special focus on inclusion.
We look forward to continuing this!
YOU REQUESTED:
NEW LOCATIONS IN THE ACCESSIBLE PÉCS DATABASE! ((also in English of course)
https://peoplefirst.hu/akadalymentes-pecs/
You missed some important locations in Pécs and around Pécs from our Barrier-free Pécs Database, we explored them.
Thanks to the support of the Pécs City Civil Framework, 4 more accessible locations and a few updates enrich our unique Barrier-free Pécs Database.
Read through them, go and enjoy the great opportunities offered by the venues – without barriers.
Be sure to write your own experience in the “Write your review” section at the bottom of the database descriptions, this will help others who are looking for accessible programs or administration! You can write in English or German too.
What did our expert team – Evelin, Hilda, Veronika, Gergő, Zoltán – explore and upload to the database at the end of last year?
Click on the links below the names for a description in the database.
We revisited and updated:the public barrier-free toilet on Széchenyi Square, the area around the TV tower and the Nevelési Központ (Education Center).
Hasn’t your year gone too well? Then change now!
Come with us in 2024, join us and let’s work together for an even better year in 2024. 
(The Hungarian inscription on the picture in English:
Happy New Year! May all your accessible dreams come true.)
Serious things can also be spent in a good mood, and even enjoyed. Perhaps we can admit to ourselves that we are doing it right. 🙂
On a sunny Saturday afternoon on December 16. 2023, we gathered in our BeFogadó/InnClusive community space to hold our annual General Meeting. We met earlier because we wanted to establish good cheer with a little Christmas, gift-giving, and food and drink. Managed.
The main body of our association, the General Assembly, then heard the financial and professional report of the Presidency. Lively interest, accompanied by comments and questions, they accepted them.
Then a constructive, useful discussion developed about the association’s plans for 2024. Great ideas have been received, and implementation teams have already been created. Encouraging activity for 2024! 🙂
This year, the Presidency also gave a small gift to those present at the General Assembly. This came straight from America thanks to our board member. The lovely little Christmas tree ornament will bring smiles to faces in many People First homes this year.
At the end, we boosted the year-end-get-together at the Quiz Night organized by our partner organizations. Some of us stayed at the BeFogadó/InnClusive with our team, which of course was called People the First. We weren’t very productive, but we had a lot of fun laughing at ourselves to tears.
Our most important event in 2023 is that our association has become a public benefit status. Why is this a big change? On the one hand, because from now on we will open up many of our (we think exciting) activities “to the public”, i.e. we will not only offer them to our members. On the other hand, many tender opportunities open up for us newly. And thirdly, supporting a public benefit organization is more suitable for a company or corporation in several respects. We hope that the latter will be possible in a novel framework in 2024. We are already working on it – not alone, of course, but in partnership.
The thinking in partnership has not changed, in fact it has strengthened in us. It is not easy to work as an NGO today in the socio-economic environment. But if we work together, we can still achieve much more results, a larger target group, a stronger impact.
Not only do we sustain ourselves, but we also build strategies, apply, grow and strengthen. In 2023, we took a deep breath and applied for the first time independently for the implementation of an international project, of which we are also coordinators. A serious task, a lot of new experience, again great new partnerships.
We are increasingly trying to communicate to our members that they are the best experts in their field, not others. They do not have to wait for solutions from outside, but they have to take the initiative, connect and do something for the betterment of their lives and environment.
Fortunately, there are many opportunities for this in Pécs. Whether to have an effective say in the affairs of the municipality or to jointly define goals, with funds that can be spent jointly. Even regular meetings with other organizations, experts, city leaders. Whether it’s the ability to report problems or make the city more accessible.
And there is our Barrier-free Pécs Database, the center of our activities. With this, we help a lot for those arriving from Pécs, Hungary and abroad in predictability and barrier-free tourism.
We felt too the general passivity this year. But People first, so we keep rolling and doing what we already know.
What we’ve been doing in 2023, showing you some numbers as usual:
Do you like what we do? Come with us, get involved! Our Hidden City Tor-Tour, our BeFogadó/InnClusive community space, our projects are waiting for you… and so do we.😍 Become our member, let’s push the cart of 2024 together!
Contact us here: info@peoplefirst.hu
Check out the Projects, News and Barrier-free Pécs menus of our website, and of course the rest!
Happy New Year 2024! 🎉
The Pécs City Hall scheduled the convening of the 3. Civil Forum on Santa Claus’ Day, 06.12.2023.
The aim of the Civil Forums is to provide the city administration and civil organizations working for the city with up-to-date information from the local government, indicate their needs and have conversations.
The need for regular convening of Civil Forums is one of the results of the urban Civil Concept established in 2021. This was formulated jointly by the municipality and NGOs in order to cooperate more smoothly and closely from now on.
The topics of the current 3. Civil Forum were the Pécs City Civil Framework and the “Decide with Us!” participatory budget.
The Pécs City Civil Framework was established last year, also based on the needs of civil organizations. Its essence is that the city should allocate an amount from which it supports the programs of the city’s civil organizations through tenders.
This year was preceded by the provision of an extraordinary overhead subsidy to NGOs, also through tenders.
In the end, HUF 50 million was available for the Pécs City Civil Framework. 95 applications were received, of which 57 organizations received funding, typically all of them half of what they requested. The reason for this, according to the City Hall, is to allow as many organizations as possible to receive funding. However, the largest amount of support was HUF 400,000. The People First Association also implements the exploration of new locations in the Barrier-free Pécs Database from only HUF 300,000.
In their comments, NGOs asked for the tender to be announced earlier next year and for the decision and contract conclusion to go much smoother, which made the work of NGOs very difficult this year. They also asked the city to create an online platform for this purpose and not have to submit the application in paper form.
This year, Pécs joined the “Decide with Us!” participation budget, following several Hungarian cities. The aim of this exemplary initiative is to enable citzens themselves to decide over a certain amount what kind of urban development they want to implement from it.
Of course, the first year caused minor and especially major bumps, but the process has started and will continue, which makes us proud of our city.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the cooperation principles laid down in the above-mentioned 2021 Civil Concept is already progressing more difficultly. Since April 2023, a large civil umbrella organization has been coordinating the Civil Concept. However, none of the activities undertaken have been implemented in the past two years, which is demotivating for many NGOs.
These include:
– Creation of a Civil Portal to provide news to and about civilians.
– Establishment of professional working groups with the participation of NGOs on Equal Opportunities, Democracy Development and Climate/Green topics.
– Creation of a Civil Database for which all NGOs can register. It would be an excellent partner search opportunity for each other, and the municipality would also know who to turn to. Registered organizations can regularly receive information from the city about tender opportunities, and only registered applicants could apply for the Pécs City Civil Framework.
– Pécs Civil Day, one-day colorful program with the opportunity to introduce yourself.
We are still waiting for all this and we strongly hope that it will be implemented in 2024.
An important closing topic of the Civil Forum was ESG introduced by the EU, the social responsibility obligation of large companies. To learn about this, the town hall promises to organize training for civil organizations in Pécs. We are looking forward to it, it will be an exciting topic!
Now the “Walk in Our Shoes” project will be really exciting! 🙂
The third training session held yesterday (05.12.2023) concluded the online training, during which the People First Association prepared the Polish partners Sowelo and the Czech partner EYCB to create a sensitizing city tour similar to the Hidden City Tor-Tour.
In addition to the project coordinators, the online trainings were attended by people working in the future Czech and Polish sensitization projects, people with disabilities, future tour guides and organizers. During the interactive trainings in a good atmosphere, we managed to get to know each other and the project better.
Now the Czech and Polish partners are developing the methodology and variations of their own sensitizing city tour, defining their target groups and marketing methods. In addition to the training, the training material developed by the People First Association will help them with this, in which they can find detailed information, suggestions and experiences.
By February 2024 we will see what great ideas our Czech and very active Polish partners come up with. We’re excited to look forward to it!
Of course, the experts of the People First Association will mentor the work of the partners throughout, we will hold monthly or on-demand online meetings.
In this WHY?, we make a small exception, since we are not writing about people with disabilities.
Or is it? Decide for yourselves by the time you get to the end.
You know that accessibility is important for a very wide target group, including the elderly. Thus, we share our lot and share a common goal in many things. This article is therefore about the elderly.
We often hear at bus stops, on buses, trains, on any means of transport: “why do the elderly push so hard when they take off?”, “why do they travel during rush hour, they don’t get there at other times?”.
Let’s think about this a little bit through with a story of my own, following the few days of my 85-year-old lively mother with hip replacement.
Let’s first look at that particular “push”, i.e. why do older people try to get on vehicles first? You wouldn’t think so, but there is a very practical, well-thought-out reason.
As soon as they board, they must sit down immediately – so you don’t sit in the front seats, but to move back in the bus! The bus drivers don’t wait, even if they could, they start immediately, at high throttle, and if the old man hasn’t managed to sit down yet, it will be a big fall. Understandably, at 85, they are no longer blessed with lightning-fast reflexes and rock-hard muscles. And the fall at this age can even be fatal.
The same when getting off the bus. You don’t have to be angry if they get out the front door – where you want to get on – because there’s no time or opportunity getting to the next door with great difficulty. Bus drivers are still ignoring them.
…………there are countries where it does, such as London, which is much busier than Pécs. Now what can I say to that? 🙁
Come the hated “witch-tank”. (Unfortunately, in Hungary this is the common name for the shopping bag on wheels, which is usually used by elderly aunts.) The very name is insulting. Honestly, if it weren’t for this hostile, contemptuous vibe about this handy rolling bag, I’d buy one too. And that’s what I’d be shopping with, not dragging my shoulders with all sorts of amorphous bags.
You wouldn’t think of this either, but the rolling bag has a very important function. It is also a support, a stable stick for the elderly person.
On the one hand, they really couldn’t stand flour and potatoes in a hand-held or shoulder-hanging bag. On the other hand, they take it with them many, many times, as safety. Because of this bus driver style(lessness), this is a reliable support when they need to get up well before the bus stop. On the street, support comes in handy even in case of a swaying or dizziness. The stable and practical rolling bag also serves as an excellent support when climbing stairs.
That’s the secret.
And now a few words about how to help an elderly person correctly?
– The basic rule here is to ask if they need help, e.g. when boarding or getting off the bus, or if they are standing out of breath in the middle of the pavement.
– Let the elderly get on the bus first, now you know why.
– Don’t sit down on one of the front seats, leave them free for those who really need to get to safety as soon as possible. Walk back in the bus and find yourself a seat.
– Do not immerse yourself in your phone sitting on the bus, saying, then everyone will solve their own problem, the main thing is that you are sitting. You can stand a few stops, at 85 years old you can’t do that anymore.
– Please don’t roll your eyes, don’t make faces, and especially don’t speak up, as mentioned at the beginning of this article. The old man feels, sees, hears this. Not only does he have to face the fact that he can no longer do many things in old age, he is deeply offended for it. Tragic social attitude.
Always think: you will also be old and you will get back what you give now!
Written by Veronika Pataki
