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PRESS RELEASE
Will there be more children in children homes?
Keeping the Centre for Homeless families remains uncertain because of vague promises
Prague, 16.2.2009
Another demonstration in support of the campaign to save the independently-funded ‚Walking Together' Centre for Homeless families and single mothers with children will take place on Thursday 19 February in front of the Prague City Municipal Offices.
Prague City councillors meet at 9 a.m. on the same day. The demonstrators will demand that the councillors support the essential work of the ‚Walking Together‘ Centre, and that it be allowed to continue to occupy its current premises. Those taking part in the demonstration are concerned that if the centre is not allowed to continue, homeless families in need of urgent social assistance will lose a vital resource which provides the help they need. If the centre closes, funds which have been donated to the Centre - from private donors, local government and from the European Union - will have been wasted, as will the support of friends and all the efforts made by the Centre's staff. The demonstrators also want to know what has happened to the petition in support of the Centre that was given to Dr Pavel Bem, Mayor of Prague by Senator Jaromir Stetina on Thursday 29th January.
At the meeting of Prague City Council on 29th January 2009, the Mayor of Prague 11, Dalibor Mlejnsky, promised that the representatives of the ‚Walking Together‘ Centre would be invited to a meeting to discuss the issue. In fact, this meant only that the time to resolve the problem was shortened, as at the meeting on 4th February, the Council of Prague 11 stated that they „had not found out anything that would alter their initial decision".
The results of meetings held to date suggest that the lack of interest the Local Council of Prague 11 shows in providing premises for certain kinds of social work is due to a deep-rooted problem in the Prague 11 Local Council. If true, then the responsibility for the provision of social services will be left entirely to the Municipal Council. It seems therefore essential to ensure that the regulations for social services provision should include an obligation for local government - at regional, or in our case, municipal level - to plan and provide social services in the community. The principle of the autonomy of local government cannot apply in this area, because of the dangers the abuse of authority such as in the case of the ‚Walking Together‘ Centre, where the eviction of homeless families and people in need and their forced relocation beyond Prague 11 limits has clearly been seen as advantageous by the Local Council. However, this is not an effective solution to the problem; all that will happen is that the financial burden of providing these services will be transferred to another Council. We believe that a network of social services in Prague is essential , and that the ‚Walking Together‘ Centre for Homeless families in Prague 11 must not be closed.
On the 2nd February, the representatives of the ‚Walking Together‘ centre were present at a meeting of the Prague City Social Work Committee and were informed about how the situation was developing. The Social Work Committee intends to carry out an assessment of the situation in the field of homeless familes by March 2009. According to experts, it is not expected that the current situation will be found either acceptable or relevant to existing needs. What makes this very clear is that, despite a closing date being set for the end of February, the centre is still being obliged to accept mothers with children who are victims of domestic abuse.
Support for the cammpaign against the closure of the ‚Walking Together‘ Centre is still growing. Nearly six thousand people have signed a petition to be handed to the Local Council of Prague 11. There is also an active and growing group operating on the social networking site Facebook. Mr Marian Hosek, a deputy in the Ministry of Work and Social Welfare, has sent a letter of support, joining with suppoters of the Walking Together Centre both from the Czech Republic and from abroad. More than two hundred people took part in the last demonstration on 29 January.
The closure of the Walking Together Centre would mean not only a serious interference in the social security system, but also in the work of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB), which has built a new church next to the ‚Walking Together‘ Centre, with the express purpose that the church and the Centre would work together as a single unit. The insensitivity and arrogance of the Prague 11 councillors reminds the members of the churh of the hostile policies towards the church pursued under the former totalitarian regime.
In this dire situation, when the Walking Together Centre has been told it must vacate the premises by the end of February 2009, the representatives of the Centre and of the Synodal Council ECCB have turned for support to some councillors of the Prague City Council who may be able to help.
We believe that these councillors see how essential it is that the services provided by the Centre be maintained. Therefore we have asked them, first, to ensure that this point is raised at the 19 February meeting of the Prague City Council on 19th February; secondly, that that Council meeting agree to maintain the social services provided by the Walking Together Centre provides from its premises at Donovalská 1862, Prague 11; and thirdly, that the City Council to appeal to the Council of Prague 11 to reconsider the termination of the lease on the Centre's building, which at present has been given three months notice, and to extend the lease until the Prague 11 Council agrees to surrender their title to the premises at Donovalská 1862.
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Should you be interested in further details, you can contact:
Milena Svobodová: 723 981 624, email: info@spolcest.cz
Ondřej Načeradský: 739 227 412, email: o.naceradsky@centrum.cz
Karel Matějka (spokesperson) :732 318 657, email: karel.matej@gmail.com
Internet links: www.spolcest.cz, www.sos-azyl.cz