The Republican Association of Wheelchair Users has organised an action in Minsk’s Park of Peoples’ friendship on Thursday.
The event was aimed at voicing support to the international movement of European people with disabilities who seek equality and fight against discrimination. Its participans also wanted to draw Belarusians’ attention to the issue of barrier free environment for physically challenged people.
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The action was attended by representatives of Minsk City Executive Committee, a Belsat.eu journalist reports.
The protesters signed a petition to Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The paper describes the challenges disabled Belarusians face every day. The petitioners urge the Belarusian president to help solve some acute problems, for example, establishing anti-discrimination law; creating a working group on the problem of barrier free environment; providing wheelchair ramps and stairlifts in blocks of flats; granting pensions to persons looking after people with disabilities, etc.
“In Belarus, a disabled person is still perceived as someone who had a bad luck, who has to stay at home and be pitied. That is the biggest problem which is ‘mother’ to the other problems of us. Organising a rally on May 5, we want to reach out to people, we would like them to hear us and realize that we want to freely move around, study and work,” Yauhen Shauko, the chairman of the Republican Association of Wheelchair Users, told Belsat.eu.
НМ, belsat.eu
