Our Latest Activity: Spreading the Philosophy of Independent Living, Supporting the Creation of Local IL Groups in the Country
So far the philosophy of Independent Living have mainly spread in Budapest as the largest, organised groups of severely disabled people live here, in the capital of Hungary. However, there are also some initiatives in other towns. We have already been to several towns in order to pass on our experiences, to talk about the essence of the philosophy, and to give advice on how to get started.
In these towns, where disabled people are cared for by their parents or by large institutions in the traditional way, young people would greatly wish to get some independence, however they don’t know what to do about it. We can show them several approaches from our experience that finally led us to achieve independence. Problems are typicaIly the same everywhere in the world: disabled people even over forty are still seen by their parents as if they were children just because they cannot leave home and live separately.
The situation is not better either if they are in an institution: they are cared for but they do not have a word even in matters that regard nobody else but themselves alone. They do not have to think, to decide. This is comfortable but degrading. However, we often do not get any positive answers from them, many ofthem do not seem to understand our point. That is why our aim is to spread our ideas in as many towns as we can in our country.