Click on a word which is in blue and bold to read what it means.
Last January a fire killed 8 men
with intellectual disabilities
in an institution in Vejprty.
Vejprty is a town in Czechia.
Inclusion Europe’s director Milan Šveřepa
was interviewed by a Czech newspaper.
They asked him questions about the fire
and what needs to be done now.
Here’s what he said:
The authorities must find out why the fire started
and why so many people died.
There are many other places like this in Czechia.
What happened in Vejprty could happen again.
You are asking the Czech authorities
not to rebuild the institution.
Of course.
There are many people who live
in institutions in Czechia.
This is very dangerous.
The problem will not be solved
even if they make institutions safer.
Czechia has to stop segregating people
in institutions.
Why is it wrong when people have to live
in an institution?
Institutions are often in places
where nobody else lives.
They are in buildings that were not built
for people with disabilities.
Sometimes these buildings
are not accessible.
People who live in these institutions
are taken away from their community,
from their family and friends.
In institutions people must respect the rules.
They are forced to do things
and cannot decide for themselves.
Bad things often happen
inside the institutions.
For example: violence and abuse.
People who live in institutions cannot meet
or talk to other people.
Many people think that institutions are safe places
for people with disabilities
because they can live among other people like them.
People often say this.
But it is wrong.
Institutions are not safe places,
as the fire in Vejprty showed.
It’s not true that people with intellectual disabilities
want to live with other people with intellectual disabilities.
What they want the most is feeling included and confident.
People feel included and confident
when they talk to friends and colleagues
and when they start a family.
People in institutions cannot do that.
After the fire the mayor of Vejprty said that
the rights of people with disabilities
must be reviewed.
I disagree with what the mayor said.
It would be wrong
to deny even more rights
to people with intellectual disabilities.
The fire in Vejprty showed us
that institutions should not exist.
Some of the people living in Vejprty
say that they don’t want to live
with people with disabilities.
Why do they say so?
They say so
because they never lived with people with disabilities before.
For a long time
people with intellectual disabilities
have been put in institutions in Czechia.
The only way to solve this situation
is to end segregation and show that
living together is possible and normal.
The people who live in Vejprty often say that
they don’t have enough information.
People are not used to live together with
people with intellectual disabilities.
So they may have wrong ideas about
people with intellectual disabilities.
For example: they may think
that people are put in institutions
because they did something bad.
But this is not true.
So it is important that everyone knows about this.
Are institutions bad for society?
Segregation does not make people feel good
in the society.
And giving money to institutions is a waste of money.
People who live in institutions
cannot learn how to do things on their own.
So we need to pay other people to do these things.
When people live in the community
they have friends or neighbours that can help them
in their daily life.
Just like everyone else.
