"The 'Petagma' " (flight) of their life.....
https://www.kathimerini.gr/.../to-spoydaio-petagma-tis.../
We warmly thank Ms. Lina Giannarou for such a wonderful article.
Publication in Kathimerini newspaper about our work
The great "flight" (in Greek PETAGMA) of their lives
The initiative that opened new doors for adults with intellectual disabilities.
20 years have passed, but Kyriaki Ioannou remembers those days as if it were yesterday. For the first time, her daughter Errika, then 22, was living outside her family home, in a Supported Living Home for adults with intellectual disabilities. "I clearly remember that we saw the changes from the very first weeks, when she came home on weekends, she would express her desires clearly. 'Do you want to go to church?' we would ask her. 'No, I don't want to,' she would say, for example. 'Do you want to wear this dress?' 'No, the other one.' And that wasn't all. We saw a clear difference in her skills. She would go into the kitchen alone to wash the dishes or pick up a knife to cut a cucumber." This didn't happen before, not for any other reason, but because in the family home, we all remain children. "It was easier for me to do it," says Erica's mother.
What she was observing in her child made her happy because it meant that Erica was doing well in the Home, that she was being cared for. At the same time, it showed Kyriaki Ioannou that the difficult struggle she had fought with other parents to establish the "Petagma" Association and the first Supported Living Home for adults with intellectual disabilities in Greece had borne its first, real fruits. "The question that has tormented all parents with children with intellectual disabilities since the beginning of time is what will become of them when we can no longer care for them," she remembers, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the first Home. "At that time, there were only asylum-type, large facilities, where I couldn't imagine my child."
The English model
The first group of parents was formed, which with the support of the "Theotokos" Foundation, managed to travel to England and see a different approach to the care of people with intellectual disabilities up close. "We saw self-contained living homes for the first time, which were ordinary houses in the neighborhood. Life in the community was unknown to us here back then. They were ordinary houses, with a small number of residents and a family atmosphere. It was also important that there weren't rules for everyone, but personalized ones according to each person's strengths and weaknesses; that is, there was a flexibility that was and still is very important. Quality of life means having choices."
The first Supported Living Flat has completed 20 years of service.
"Petagma" decided to bring this model to Greece. "We approached the ministry at the time, where we submitted a pilot program, but they didn't fund it. However, because everything had been done—the financial study, the children's individual plans, everything—we decided to start with our own money and operate only on weekends."
The first "PETAGMA"
The parents were supported by a team of capable executives who backed the effort. The first hesitant steps quickly turned into a canter and then... a "Petagma" (to fly away). "As we saw that it was going well, that the children were adapting to the new living conditions, and we gained more and more confidence in the staff, we added days. It was a process because for a parent, it is not an easy decision to leave the care of their children to others. In the end, it was more difficult for the parents. The children quickly got used to the new situation."
It was the beginning. Today, various organizations operate about 80 self-contained homes with 500 beneficiaries across the country. "Our children develop as personalities, they are happier, but our own lives have also been upgraded. The daily anxiety of the family has stopped. We feel greater security that even if something happens, even if we are gone, the child is in an organized environment where they are loved, known, and cared for."