News in English     | 07.10.2020. 10:40 |

Kavalec: The new law aims to help the parents of children with disabilities

FENA Aida Kovač

SARAJEVO, October 7 (FENA) - Director of the association "Give us a chance" and the manager of service centers of this organization, Ines Kavalec stated that the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Fadil Novalić in a conversation with her expressed direct support for the adoption of the law on the status of parents/caregivers of children with developmental disabilities and difficulties.

In an interview with FENA, Kavalec said that a meeting was held at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH, Fadil Novalić, at which the Prime Minister expressed interest what could be done, as soon as possible, when it comes to solving the status of the families who have members that are persons with disabilities.

"I made several proposals to the Prime Minister. One of them is the draft law on the status of parents/caregivers who have a child that is a person with disabilities," explained Kavalec.

She underlined that this was an ongoing topic and that the draft was passed in both the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament.

"It should have been within the framework of the existing law on social protection. Given that we have a current parallel adoption process of a new law and the amendments to the law on family protection, the Working Group has agreed that the status of parents/caregivers be incorporated in the latter law," said Kavalec.

She mentioned that a public debate was held, and that everything that needed to be fulfilled after the adoption of the draft law was completed, and that Prime Minister Novalić expressed support for speeding up the process.

She added that it is time for the Federation of BiH to have such a law, noting that neighboring Croatia has had it for 13 years.

Kavalec also added that this law is already in force in the entity of Republika Srpska. It was adopted half a year ago and is already being improved.

This law should treat closed institutions, social protection institutions in the Federation of BiH, such as the Pazarić Institute and all other five institutions in which persons with some kind of difficulties are accommodated.

She added that every family wants to be functional, to be useful for society, "and not to be a family in a state of social need."

Noting that she is also a parent of a child with disabilities, she said that the essential emphasis is on families, i.e., children and people who are dependent on someone 24 hours a day. So we are talking about a violation of the basic human right of people who have someone they have to take care of all the time.

"A salary that a parent /caregiver will be paid is the minimum salary in the Federation of BiH. It is far from ideal, but it is certainly not so bad in relation to what we have had so far. With this, we are solving the status of many people who were registered as unemployed with the employment services, we are making it easier for the Federation of BiH, we are making it easier for society, that we will not have a huge number of families in a state of social need," Kavalec underlined.

"Since 2014, with the support of USAID, we have opened an innovative model in the Sarajevo Canton - a service center to support families with persons with disabilities, regardless of the degree of disability, age and diagnosis. These are some services of a social character that are free of charge for the end-user," Kavalec pointed out.

She reminded that, in 2014, this was a pilot project and that they started with 60 beneficiaries. Today, after six years, they have two service centers in the Sarajevo Canton, where they have 707 families that use the services when they need them.

Kavalec added that they have extended these models to the Federation of BiH and have a total of four service centers in FBiH - two in Sarajevo and one each in Zenica and Zavidovići. In the entity of Republika Srpska, they have one service center each, in Banja Luka, Foča and Trebinje.

"The goal is to expand the models of service centers that have proven necessary. Currently, the service center "Give us a chance" provides more than 10 types of services that are free of charge. We listen to the needs of families and in that way, we try to devise new models to assist them. The service center has 25 people working 24 hours for these families. We copied the model from countries that have had it for years," concluded Kavalec in an interview with FENA. 

(FENA) S. R.

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