Mersich (20) and Adnan (14) from Ulcinj, suffer from cerebral palsy and are wheelchair bound. A few years ago, they were in Istanbul, Turkey, where they were injected with stem cells. Their father Afrim Resulbegović says that there are improvements, but not enough for children to be able to walk without the support of their parents.
These days, as well as every year when it's warm, Afrim takes the children swimming in Mandrać, behind the third entrance to Mala beach, near the house where they live.
"It's the only place in the city, not counting the Great Beach, where I can take them to the water without any problems. There is also a ramp, it is true that there are also scooters, but I also have no problems with the owners. On the contrary, those guys always meet me. It's hard to take children in strollers up the stairs to the sand and the shore," said Resulbegović to "Vijesta".
So Mersiha and Adnan, although they don't have many choices, can, like their peers, enjoy the charms of swimming in the sea on whose foam they were born.
They belong to persons with disabilities or special needs, according to whom the state still does not have an adequately regulated legal and health framework, which would properly respond to the challenges of this vulnerable group.
"Health care in Montenegro does not include services available to people with disabilities, especially children with disabilities. Children with disabilities, who spend a good part of their childhood in hospital treatments, have experienced - together with their parents - all the shortcomings of the early warning system, or expertise, or the availability of professional staff in Montenegro, or adequate space and information, adequate equipment, medicines and with aids that match their needs," Ombudsman Siniša Bjeković said recently.
BUREAUCRATIC PROCEDURES
The ombudsman's words are confirmed by a bizarre example of poorly and insufficiently arranged access to swimming pools in Ulcinj and Montenegro for people with disabilities. That the problem has not been solved and that it can and must be done better is also recognized by the Public Enterprise for the Management of the Marine Assets, which manages the beaches. In JP, however, they remind us of bureaucratic procedures.
"The issue of access for persons with disabilities to organized swimming pools is regulated by the Urban Planning and Technical Conditions, which states that the same can be implemented, but in accordance with Article 71 of the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Facilities, and the Rulebook on Closer Conditions and Ways of Adapting Facilities to Persons with Disabilities disability. At the bathing areas where access ramps and paths for persons with disabilities have been installed, there is an obligation of the lessee to maintain the same cleanliness and passability in order to enable unhindered access to the sea", says JP's answer to the questions of "Vijesti".
It is stated that the JP is planning to create a plan with the Municipality of Ulcinj, as well as with all the municipalities that are in the maritime domain, on the implementation of new locations where it is possible to first of all carry out technical documentation, and then to implement a ramp on the ground for people with special needs needs, that is, for people with disabilities.
"Also, the goal and plan of the Public Enterprise is to provide more locations for access for people with disabilities for the next season," reads the answer.
LARGE BEACH AVAILABLE
President of the Association of Tenants of Ulcinj Baths Prelja Škrelja also points to this problem, pointing out that it is almost impossible to make access to the sea for people with disabilities at some swimming pools, especially in the city.
"First of all, I'm thinking of the bathing areas in Borova šuma, where due to the configuration of the terrain, large uphills and downhills, it is not possible to build a path that would be completely safe," Škrelja told "Vijesta".
On the Velika beach, he pointed out, more than half of the bathing area has these paths arranged.
"They are not marked because, apart from people with disabilities, they are used by all other visitors to the swimming pool. On Copacabana, where I am a tenant, the path is almost from the parking lot to the coast," says Škrelja.
He adds that the tenants use mostly prefab paths which, after the season, are removed from the swimming pool.
“For those who don't know, those trails are quite expensive. Depending on the beach and the length, their price is between ten and twenty thousand euros," explained Škrelja.
WITHOUT SELECTION AND DISCRIMINATION
Physiotherapist from Ulcinj Srdjan Kuzman, who has frequent contact with people with special needs, believes that on all beaches where it is possible, it is necessary to make special paths for them to the water itself.
"We live in the 21st century, an era where we should all have the same conditions for our own needs, including access to swimming pools. Therefore, without selection and discrimination, provide everyone with unhindered access to the coast itself. Because be careful, the term 'disabled person', by definition, refers to a person whose disability is only one of his characteristics, and it does not mean that he is a person who, in his totality, is worth less, has reduced potential or capacity. Therefore, we should not discriminate against that group of people, neither in actions nor in terminology," said Kuzman to "Vijesta".
He stated that he does not know how "Morsko dobro" treats that topic.
"That's why I appeal that in all lease contracts, they have an imperative provision on arranging access for people with disabilities, of course at those swimming pools where this is possible. And that should be mapped and clearly marked on the beaches so that people know. I have the same message for tenants - to do it as much as possible, even on their own initiative, because it shows their attitude towards society as a whole".
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