What is available in Hungary

We have just come back from holidays in Hungary and I cannot help but wonder what would have happened if my Mother had not had the inclination to defect from Hungary with me in tow, but had stayed and all other aspects of my life had been the same.

Whenever we go abroad with SJ and Pippa, it has usually been the case that SJ would get the stares or the attention, which sometimes worked in Pippa's favour but often it did not.

For example in all the Spanish resorts that we have ever been too, SJ has been treated almost like royalty.  She has been given free cakes, been first in line for the dinner queue, allowed to go through customs without any queries (bit worrying that one as it was after 9/11 and security in England was very tight) and perhaps most frustratingly, when in Barcelona making our way back to the airport, lugging individual suitcases of two weeks worth of clothes, SJ was the one who had her bags carried up and down the many flights of stairs that had to be negotiated.  Pippa was not amused.  She was only eight at the time. Spain has always welcomed my daughter and treated her with utmost respect.  In one of the villages that we stayed there was a young

This time we went to Hungary and we were the centre of attention for another reason.  It was because we were four women on holiday without a man.  Quite unheard of. 

It made me think though as in all the years that I have been to Hungary I have never seen a young person of any age who has Down Syndrome.  I have even asked my cousins why this is and they do not know.  I became very concerned about this and was worried about what facilities were available. Then I found this website and I am relieved to find that progress is being made at an amazing rate, please take a look at the videos.  It doesn't matter that you do not understand the language but you can see what innovative way they introduce sound into play. It also shows how determined the carers are in ensuring that their young charges develop as fast as possible in line with children of a similar age who do not have Down Syndrome.  That is what is said by the Principal of the organisation.

http://www.downalapitvany.hu

And just for the record as we were leaving, we could see at the corner of our street, two young women with Down syndrome working on the flower beds. I wish I could see more of the same in England.

So would SJ have been better or worse off if we had been in Hungary?  Difficult to say with just a snapshot, but judging from the video, I think she would have had a fighting chance. 

Just to conclude the weather was lovely and sunny and we spend a very nice week at Lake Balaton.  The smells of the trees, grasses and flowers was intoxicating.  I can't wait to go back.

Is there anything in the pot for us?

After reading the manifesto's of the three main contenders trying to work out what their policies are on children with disabilities, how they are to support families with children with disabilities and how they will provide them with suitable work in the future, rather than being confined to either staying at home, going to college learning the same thing over and over, or existing on benefits with no real chance of getting a job as they become the least able people to employ.  I have come to the sad conclusion that I cannot see how there will be sufficient money in the pot to enable us to maintain the same level of service, never mind improve it.

While I fully understand why there is a need for major change to the incapacity benefit rules and regs, this will take time and the people who are cheating our vulnerable youth out of claiming these benefits will continue to do so.

When I was a teacher at a local college a while back the Labour government had a scheme in which, if you had been unemployed for more than six months then you had to return to college and be re - schooled in English, Maths and IT, this applied to unemployed people from the age of seventeen to sixty, my oldest pupil.  We were basically mopping up for those poor youths who had left school with little or no qualification and for the elderly in our group who had either been in careers and had work but had been made unemployed by redundancy, ill health (I had one man who came to the class whose sight was so bad that he had to hold a paper three inches from his face to see what was written, he also had a heart complaint) or they had been looking after parents who had subsequently died leaving them with little chance of employment.

There were some successes, a couple who met at college subsequently became partners and have since had a little girl together, neither of them work though.

So if this new government is to spend its time checking up on all the false claims that there are and they find that there are say, twenty thousand people who are claiming illegally, can someone tell me what jobs there will be to do, given that they may not have worked for years?

Where are these jobs going to com from?  Will my daughter be able to get one? How are you to persuade a company to employ my daughter, who will need more support than someone else to employ her and give her the training to be a good employee?

Where will that money come from.  As the previous government systematically removed support for company's such as Remploy, how and what will this government put in its place.  Please let it be something worthwhile, sustainable and give my daughter and others some dignity and self worth.