December 29, 2014 Georgia

Living with a disability is quite difficult in Georgia

Katarina Comenius works for Caritas Czech Republic as a volunteer in Georgia on a project that aims to help people with disabilities to integrate into a normal work life. As Katarina found out, it is not easy at all. Here is her personal confession.

“In the first meeting, my colleague asked me to contact all hotels in Tbilisi which have wheelchair access. I rolled my eyes a bit, because there are many hotels here. I finally found out that there are only three hotels with wheelchair. I realized the absurdity: there are only three hotels with wheelchair access in a popular capital city with 1,5 million residents. Three!

We excuse for now the fact that the hotels are buildings that should be publicly available. How to explain the life of the handicapped people in the city they live in, though.

Life in the city is for us linked with transportation from place to place. The simplest way (and the cheapest) is to use public transport. However, it is challenge even for relatively young, healthy person (due to overcrowding and old buses with high stairs, the fact that you have to get in during the acceleration, etc.) How it can be used by medically disadvantaged person? In this case the public transport for him is almost inaccessible. Though they have other options, but those are limited to taxi travel (it is relatively common, but more expensive), or wait until one of their relatives finds time.

If we already have the possibility to move, we turn to its simplest form: movement in the streets. During September when I noticed initiatives to create sidewalk descents from the curb, I thought to myself how great it is for Tbilisi to be opened to cyclists so quickly. It was only after another week I noticed that the sidewalk descents have been labelled not for bicycles but for wheelchair users. At that time I realized that people with the limited mobility have had not opportunity to pass the street from one intersection to another on their own.

I could go on like this – crossing over the road, underpasses beneath the street, lack of sound signs at the crossing for blind, low employment rate, complete dependence on the family, etc.). I just want to point out how slowly one comes to realize what physically disadvantaged person can need and what can help him to have more active and better quality life in the country like Georgia.”

The stay of the volunteer in Georgia is funded by SlovakAid.