We don’t stop! End of last year established the Pécs Local Equal Opportunity Programme 2018-2023. The disability-related chapter is written by active local NGO-s.
We are working to make our suggestions come true!
The first goal is to create the Pécs Disability Council to help the city’s work. We agreed on this yesterday and we have listened to the People First’s report about the “Behindertenbeirat” in Erfurt (Germany) as an example to be followed.
We are very pleased to involve more high school students in the People First activities and the disabled world. This time, we signed a cooperation agreement with the Kodály Zoltán High School Pécs, so they will work with us as community service. We can’t wait to start work with them. We hope they will enjoy it with us!
The Emberség Erejével Alapítvány (Human Power Foundation) announced the tender of Strengthening Civil Organisations 2019. as part of a program Open Society Foundations. 144 tenders were submitted to the reading committee in December 2018 and 64 of these were awarded to support in January 2019 – including the project of People First Association: “If there’s no barrier, we’re coming too! 🙂 “
Our project implemented more project elements in barrier-free tourism between 01.03.2019. – 31.01.2020. , supporting the independent living of people with disabilities. More about the project here: http://peoplefirst.hu/en/projects/erosodo-civil-kozossegek-eck-2019/
14-17 April 2018. as a part of a program of Aktion Mensch Foundation a German delegation from Erfurt arrived to us for the preparation of the material for the Independent Living Center’s German-Hungarian tender. The group that mainly included disabled people was accommodated at Hotel Barbakán. Our programs consisted of: visit the Pécs marketplace, listening to the presentation on the Barrier-free Tourism Day at Tekeres, participation at the Orfű Medvehagyma Festival, visit to the World Heritage Zsolnay Quarter where we listened to a presentation about making the site barrier-free. We also made a visit to the Malomvölgy Social Home (several of our members live here) and the Cella Septichora Mausoleum another World Heritage monument in a wheelchair. The last day we held a workshop at the Center of Civil Societies about lifestyle possible for disabled people in Hungary. The lunch was provided by Bio Bia so the guests could try some good stuff. Finally we made a stop at Retextil where we had the chance to see a workplace employing a disabled community.
1-5 May 2018. it was our turn to make a visit to Germany by a minivan. We attended different presentations of which one was about life, living and labor assistance in Germany at the Landesverband Thüringen Interessenvertretung Selbstbestimmt Leben (at the National Organization of the Thüringen Advocacy of Independent Life). Later we got to know the president and other responsibles of the Erfurt Disability Council through an informative talk. We also had the chance to be present at the reunion for the assistance of the disabled people at Café B, where we participated in a workshop to discuss the main topics of the Aktion Mensch Project.
Our general assembly held on the 7th and 18th of June last year were important milestones because our whole Association got renewed. We elected new presidency, we established new constitution, new plans and new opportunities. The former president Gergő Berkes called out, the new board members Veronika Pataki as president, Roland Balogh vice-president and István Fazekas secretary, Right now could also greet 10 new joiners in our association.
And later we got into the groove!:
Bálint Lovescher designed a super logo for us and we opened up our bilingual website as a result of the expertise of Balázs Oláh and Róbert Rauch. We keep up with an intensive and bilingual appearance both on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks to the help of our accountant and solicitor we straightened up our legal and financial affairs and started to build national and international relationships.
Through our meetings we speeches, discussing our experiences and plans we tried to make community interaction and awareness as wide-spread as we could.
September 2018. we actively took part in the organization of the 2nd Barrier-free Tourism Day. As part of the organization board our responsibilities were volunteer registration and awareness, marketing, Facebook, press and the mobility of disabled people. One of our members, Csaba Pintér operated the Speckó special escape room during the programme.
In October 2018. we got the honor to participate in the description of Pécs city Local Equal Opportunities Program. It was a great pleasure to work with a fantastic group in detailing chapter 7 (which deals with the situation of disabled people). The final goal however is to convert these professional plans into reality with the same team.
We liked the idea of our members Alexa Dékán and we started to brainstorm on a project: what would happen if we would mark with stickers on the entry the restaurants/cafes/shops in Pécs the barrier-free access and and maybe even barrier-free toilets? It’s became a tender submitted for the Pécs Community Foundation and we have been one of the 3 winners of 17! The project is till end of August 2019, during this time we will stick the half world and we will put on the results the wheelmap.org international website too.
Also in September 2018 we made a contract with Leőwey Klára High School, so community service students can work with us. We like the kids very much and they are very useful: they can help us with translations (English class), organization, they are animators of Speckó sessions and can help in boccia trainings. Moreover apparently getting a better understanding of the disabilities world.
From 1th of November 2018 we participate in an international project. As a partner of Green-Active Social Cooperative we did the preparation of the Peer-Act Erasmus+ K2 Project. Early 2019 two members of us will participate in a one week international training in Germany and further 8 People Fist members will be trained in barrier-free tourism in Pécs. More about it here: http://peoplefirst.hu/projects/peer-act-erasmus-ka2-nemzetkozi-project/
Between 19.11.-03.12.2018. we have been involved in an international campaign from Germany. The campaign inKLOsiv called attention for barrier-free toilets. People First HU looked for Pécs locations as good example (I Love Pécs Café, Janus Business Center).
In December we have been contacted by the Kodály Zoltán High School to work with us. We are very lucky to involve more young people and can sensitize in the disabled topic.
On 7. December we closed the year with a general assembly and we discussed the plans and had even new members.
We will be even more active and consistent in 2019, however we keep it essential that the local organisations achieve goals together in collaboration!
Article on the site of European Network on Independent Living – ENIL:
How to set up the system of Personal Assistance in Hungary for persons with disabilities
In the Hungarian disability movement, great work was done by many disabled persons and their allies, for example György Könczei, Pál Gadó, Gábor Zalabai, László Hajdi (ZALABAI P-NÉ 1997). Hungarian IL Centers (ÖÉK) were organized in the ‘90s with the aim to support persons with severe disabilities and to offer counselling to professionals (ZALABAI P-NÉ 2009). Magdolna Jelli, a disabled activist herself, was the president of the Disabled Peoples’ Independent Life Association (ÖNÉ). Some of the services she introduced back then, such as the Ferryman Service, which is a peer support group, still work (JELLI M. and HEGYES F. É.N.; https://onalloelet.hu/), but until today, personal assistance (PA) could not be established in a systematic way.
On the 13th November 2018 the Sixth Disability Studies Conference was held in Budapest. The conference was organized by the ELTE University’s Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education. We invited Tom Shakespeare as a keynote speaker, who summarized the conclusions of a research project about PA relationships in the UK. His lecture was followed by a panel discussion about the possibilities of introducing PA services in Hungary. Our reason to choose this topic was, that although our state has ratified the UN CRPD in 2007, there are still only a few active PA users in Hungary, who need to finance their assistance completely from their private resources.
As a next step, to better understand the background of the possibilities and difficulties of PA, we invited disabled persons, allies and potential personal assistants to talk about their experiences. As some of the few Hungarian PA users, Zsuzsa Antal, Károly Tóth and Dániel Csángó shared their personal knowledge about the everyday practice of PA. All three speakers are activists and participatory teachers at the ELTE University, working on the social inclusion of persons with disabilities on different levels.
Our goal is to continue the establishment of the Hungarian network of user led PA services by collecting and sharing information and experience regarding PA, to support and disseminate the conclusions of participatory researches on connected issues and to generate discourse in the Hungarian judicial and social context. We aim to generate an empowered local forum which connects international knowledge regarding PA systems with the Hungarian framework to successfully constitute accessible PA services.
JELLI M. and HEGYES F. Disabled Peoples’ Independent Life Association, Budapest, Hungary [on-line – accessed: 01.11.2018]
ZALABAI P-NÉ (1997). Önálló életvitel és személyi segítés (English: Independent Living and Personal Assistance) [on-line – accessed: 01.11.2018]. Esély, Vol. 8., No. 5. pp. 56-70.
ZALABAI P-NÉ (2009). Önálló életvitelt segítő eszközök, munkahelyi akadálymentesítés és munkaeszközök adaptációja. Jegyzet (English: Tools for Independent Living, Workplace Accessibility and Adaption of Work Equipment) [on-line – accessed: 01.11.2018]. ELTE BGGYK, Budapest.
Anikó Sándor, Dániel Csángó, Károly Tóth, Zsuzsanna Antal, Zsuzsanna Kunt
Activists and allies, ELTE University
A year has past, a very active and effective one. Let’s see what had People First HU done in 2018?
We’ve been on a study-tour in Germany and they came here, to Hungary. The association has changed, new Base Rules, new presidency, new plans, the number of our members is continuously increasing. We’ve set our bilingual website, students are doing community service with us, we’re sensitizing here and there. We’re applying and winning, we’re partners in international projects, we took part in develop the city’s Equal Opportunities Program. We’re forming relationships in Hungary and abroad, we’re taking part in campaigns even abroad. And we’re getting together everytime we can to just enjoy each other! We’ll continue this in 2019! 
If you’re interested, join or follow us!
We held a great and cosy open year-end general assembly yesterday in Speckó – thanks for our member Pintér Csaba. We talked about how much did we do this year and a future task.
Yes, a lot of things we did this year: the association transformed, we take part in national and international projects/campaigns, won an application, made contract with two high schools about the students community service, we have logo and website, participated in writing of the local Equal Opportunities Program 2018-2023, we had a serious role of the organising the II. Barrier-free Tourism Day, we have new Hungarian and international partnerships, our members are open, active and more and more professional!
Special thanks to our outside enthusiasts for participating in the general assembly and welcome our new members!
The People First Association participate in an international project, its first kick-off meeting was held between 30.11.-03.12.2018 in Barcelona and Corbera. The “Peer-Act” Erasmus+ KA2 project is a program with the participation of five countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Croatia), the main objective of the project is the training of Peer Counselor trainers from the community of disabled people or people with special needs, with providing inclusion and equal opportunities. You can read more about this project in our website here: http://peoplefirst.hu/en/projects/peer-act-erasmus-ka2-nemzetkozi-project/
The People First Association – Pécs participate in the campaign inKLOsiv between 19.11.-03.12.2018 to draw attention how important are barrier-free toilets to the disabled people. By joining the international campaign we are already on the website of wheelmap.org. Direction the world! 
Places we sent: I Love Pécs Café and Janus Office Building. Thank you!
