The international meeting of our Indeed project was this time in Pécs, Hungary. On 15-16 October, our Slovak, Italian and German partners visited us in our InnClusive community space in Balokány-grove.
We had an intense two days, approaching independent living from many different aspects. We wanted to present the Hungarian situation in particular, with questions, comments and own experiences from other countries.
What we are most proud of is that, at the start of the first day, several members of our association spoke about their own experiences of independent living.
Balázs Oláh talked about why he made this decision and what it was like to move from his family to a small supported housing community recently. He got a lot of motivation from living independently and made huge progress in many everyday activities.
Gyöngyi Molnár is slowly moving from her own apartment to a small supported housing community. For now she only spends weekends there, but she would like to live more and more with her flatmates. She has also discovered new skills thanks to the fact that in independent housing there is no parent to jump in to help, take her car to the service or fuel, she has to do everything herself. She realised she could do it and really enjoyed it.
Evelin Almádi talked about what it is like to live alone in your own apartment as a visually impaired person. She lives a full life as a non-sighted person, she works and even plays sports, she regularly runs around Lake Malomvölgyi with help and has cycled around Lake Balaton on a tandem bike.
We heard from Hilda Kerekes about how she is dealing with the fact that she used to be married and live in her own flat, and has now moved back in with her parents. What difficulties she faces in finding a job as a disabled person, what plans she has and what she has to face.
Péter Makay shared some very interesting thoughts from the other side. Péter changed from an Italian teacher to a personal assistant. He feels he gets as much as he gives, is energised by his work. He shared many interesting details with the international team about how personal assistants can work in Hungary today, who they can help and how. He received a lot of questions from representatives of other countries.
We heard a presentation on support services, where the university support service was of particular interest.
We summarised for our guests what self-advocacy organisations are operating in Hungary.
We talked about the Pécs community budget (“Decide with us!”), which is also a great opportunity for empowerment for people with disabilities.
We presented the Barrier-free Tourism Day festival, which we have been organising since 2016 with great national interest in Orfű.
Then we discussed the project tasks ahead.
We screened short films, played quizzes, and at the end we cooked “lecsó” together in a joint barbeque, so that our guests could find out what real Hungarian cuisine is like. 🙂
We will regularly update you on the progress of the project on our Facebook page.
Read more about the Indeed project here: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/blog-post/ndeed-erasmus-international-project/
