On Tuesday, under the parliament of persons with disabilities and their guardians protested against freezing work on the individual Assistance Act. – We put wipers with our images under the Sejm, due to the fact that we feel trampled on by the President, who promised us a law on assistance 4 years ago, and by the coalition on October 15, which promised the bill a year ago. Time passes, and there are inactive no solutions – he says Charles Koseck, Initiator of shares 2119 PLN.
I spoke to Kosecka in May 2023 in a podcast There is no future without equality. At that time she told me that “because we have a strategy that does not care persons with disabilities (OzN), for many years I was convinced that sooner or later I would take care of my brothers. I love them and I won't let them get hurt. But this is simply a unusual Christ narration that falls upon you, taking distant all the subjectivity and choice."
At the time, people active in the initiative of PLN 2119 (the name comes from the amount associated with the resignation of the professional care service for the caretaker or guardian of OzN in 2022 of Poland) arranged under the presidential palace a "burial", demanding the introduction of the Act on individual assistance, without which OzN will simply die.
“They will, due to the fact that they will not be able to do without support, or they will just go abroad for euthanasia,” Kosecka said. At that time, the ruling squad did not show a willingness to deal with specified a bill.
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Today it turns out that it doesn't substance who's in charge. That is why we must protest again, and Kosecka and others say directly: we do not want to quit our own lives and our own loved ones due to the fact that the state is not doing its duty. individual assistance is 1 of the points of the UN Convention on the Rights of the OzN, signed by Poland since 2007. 12 years ago, the paper was ratified, and the rules weren't there.
What precisely is it? Law-regulated, state-run and state-funded services of individual assistants, whose task is to assist OzN in everyday activities and functioning in society.
This solution, which, on the 1 hand, ensures greater autonomy of OzN and, on the other, their guardians, due to the fact that it allows both of them to undertake various activities. Referring to the logic of profit, as an argument for introduction of assistance, the anticipation of taking up work and paying taxes can be given. Humanity, however, requires first of all to think about human rights and to enjoy life as far as possible, which applies to all regardless of the level of efficiency.
Currently, access to assistance is heavy restricted. The number of assistant services is 840, 720, 480 and 360 per year (!) respectively, depending on the degree of disability. It is simply a privilege which does not apply universally and systematically, but is implemented by local governments and NGOs under the Programme of the Minister of household and Social Policy. Paying an assistant on the private marketplace is simply a cost far beyond many people in request of care.
The tardiness of decision-makers in this substance is said by the people for whom assistance is simply a substance of life and death, and where each of us can be found, due to the fact that the capacity – as another activist for OzN – Małgorzata Szumowska told me – is temporary.
Disability is not a sentence. This is at least the case in many Western countries, where there is simply a policy that involves OzN in social life with assistance, not putting everything on the shoulders of relatives or putting OzN in social services.
On October 29, Karol Koseck and another caring and activist persons appeared under the parliament to refocus politicians on the problems of 1 of the most marginalised groups in the country. Unfortunately, they were not allowed, despite the protest, to take place at the entrance of the parliament and thus not to miss the attention of Members and Members working in the Village. That's why the demonstration took place on the sidewalk.
Photo by Jakub Szafranski
Photo by Jakub Szafranski
Photo by Jakub SzafranskiKosecka chose October 29 for her protest. This date is connected to 2 things. First of all, the legislature of Persons with Disabilities is held in Warsaw, and we thought that this was a good chance to make it public about individual assistance and what kind of government we want, and which had to go to the basket and halt being conducted around this Congress. Secondly, I work for three-quarters and Tuesday is the only day I have a fewer hours off, and my mother, who is the second organizer of this protest, had to stay home with my brother, due to the fact that then there is no assistant," says the initiator of PLN 2119.
And this time it was not without connotation with spiritual and popular symbols in culture. Before entering parliament, wipers were glued to the pavement, or alternatively a diptych depicting Catherine Kosecka with her boy on her hands. It's the work of an Iga Ant artist who was inspired by Pieta's motive in art.
– erstwhile Iga listened to our story, she felt (rightly) that she was dealing with despair, which in culture is represented by a oppressed parent holding a boy taken off the cross on her knees. In a country where Catholicism is inactive firmly adhered to, and in which suffering is considered to be noble or sanctifying virtue, this symbolism is very clear," says Karol Kosecka and adds:
– The despair of my parent over my brother’s body, captured on wipers, becomes a metaphor for the situation of OzN. Disability on the 1 hand is something that determines the life of the individual afraid and, on the another hand, the babysitter: usually the mother, little frequently the father or siblings, if any. The binding of 2 bodies visible on the diptych shows precisely what Polish law condemns us to.
Photo by Jakub Szafranski
Photo by Jakub Szafranski
Photo by Jakub Szafranski
Speech by Karola Kosecka under the Sejm. photograph by Jakub SzafranskiFor what exactly? To be closed in 4 walls and to be completely devoted to a loved 1 to supply his primary care. Basic – due to the fact that for a full and independent life there is not adequate strength, time and place.
When I ask Kosecka why an ant diptych serves as wipers, I hear that people who have been waiting for respective years feel trampled. – Time passes, and in addition, there is simply a presidential bill that the Ministry of household and Social Policy knows perfectly well that it is fatal and that it cannot enter into force – he explains.
The President's office actually worked 4 years on its own bill. His first reading took place on 1 October that year at the Sejm meeting. From the beginning, however, the task was criticised by the social side, which indicated that the proposed amendments were incompatible with Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Standard of individual Assistance. Nearly 200 amendments were tabled. I hear from Kosecki that the presidential task lacks, among others, children's support.
– However, we believe that a individual with disabilities must be supported from the beginning in his independent life. It can't be that individual lives outside of society until they're 18, and then abruptly they get an assistant and then they start developing under independence. Besides, there is no written support in this bill in the care and medical activities. This is simply a pseudo-solution, if we consider that the assistant will be able, for example, to drink with a supported individual of coffee, but he will not go to the toilet with her and will not aid him take medication, due to the fact that the regulations do not order him to do so," Kosecka explains.
As a weakness of the President's Chancellery, the social side besides indicates the number of hours of individual assistance. If the presidential bill had come into force, OzN would have had 40 to 200 hours a month.
– This truly simply excludes people who most – due to the fact that 24 hours a day – request assistance – adds Karol Koseck.
What does Donald Tusk's squad say? Despite the declaration of introduction of the assistant benefit as 1 of the priorities of the coalition agreement in the fresh government, the bill prepared by that organization did not occur. Deputy Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy, as well as the government's proxy for people with disabilities, Łukasz Krason, pointed out that the task would go to the Sejm after vacation this year.
Today, the politician is not so sure, and unofficially it is said that the problem – as it usually happens – is in the budget. This time, the deficiency of money to assist the finance department is to explain the costs associated with the flood in Lower Silesia. A convenient excuse. But is it convincing and true? surely not surprising, given the fact that the Polish government hates women, and it is on their shoulders that the biggest part of the care work lies.