Feminist Emergency Service: an urgent grant for organizing a performance: creating an installation, related to the draft Act on Personal Assistance, in front of the Presidential Palace. 

About the group 

Protest 2119 is a group of people with disabilities, people on the autism spectrum and their loved ones: mothers, partners, friends, and allies. The collective works for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) in Poland and fights for a dignified life for PwD and their families. It organizes protests, street actions and advocacy in order to put real pressure on decision-makers and change the law. 

About the action 

We have been waiting for three years for the Act on Personal Assistance (PA), which is crucial for the independence of PwD. Political promises have not been fulfilled – the project presented by the Chancellery of the President excludes children and people requiring 24/7 support and does not consider the real needs of the community. After the change of government in 2023, a new, conventional PA project was created, which is to be read in parliament in September 2024. Our goal is to pressure for it to be passed and implemented immediately.

The group prepared an installation in front of the Presidential Palace, which drew people’s attention to the problem of the lack of personal assistance in Poland. The installation pointed out that without implementing the convention on personal assistance, people with disabilities and their relatives are deprived of free functioning in everyday life and the freedom to decide how they want to live. 

Grant amount: PLN 3,000 

Photograph Suzi Andreis / Feminist Fund