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First blog from Pawel Parus

12 April 2011

I am pleased to have the opportunity to share with you few remarks and thoughts on the CAFE blog from the perspective of a disabled supporter. Since this is my first time writing on this blog, I feel it would be appropriate to introduce myself. My name is Pawel. I am a wheelchair user for almost 11 years. I started the Silesia Wroclaw Disabled Supporters Club (DSA) 2.5 years ago. This is the first DSA in Poland. I’m about to finish journalism at the University of Lower Silesia. I’m specializing in the sport journalism. Before the accident, I was a professional sports person. I used to swim, play football and basketball. One could say that sport was a part of my life since birth.

Today I will present you the problems that a disabled supporter has to face in Poland to arrive to a match. To understand the issue you have to know that the state of polish roads is a result of over 40 years of socialism and communism. Years of negligence in roads and railways maintenance, every long journey through the country is a torment. Especially for disabled people.
 

Fortunately, its changing. Someone has finally understood that Poland can’t develop any further with such an archaic infrastructure. Things changing, but it’s still far from being perfect. I have organized a trip to a game in Warsaw for our Disabled Supporters Club. The distance between Warsaw and Wroclaw – a little over 350 km. We considered two ways of reaching the capital – by train or by bus. Yet, it turned out that a travel by train is not possible for more than two wheelchair users at the same time since the space in wagon is limited. Moreover, only one wagon of the train was adapted to accommodate wheelchair users. But this is not all. When the game is over, on return train we would not have a space at all in the whole train. You can understand that we were not interested in six-hour trip somewhere between the toilet and the passage to the next wagon. This situation reminded me my trip to the UEFA European Football Championship in Klagenfurt and the train had four spaces for wheelchairs users in each wagon. When such trains will be available in Poland?
 

We decided to travel by specially adapted bus. Unfortunately, it turns out that our trip to Warsaw could last even 10 hours. All because of road works. If only we could drive on motorway… Recently, we went to Crakow. The distance of 300 km took 3 hours. Now, we will travel with the speed of bicycle, which is a problem because, due to health condition, long travels are not recommended for some of us.
 

Well, despite of the difficulties, we decided to go. Mostly because we are ready to make sacrifices to pursue our passions. We love football and our club – Slask Wroclaw. Perhaps thanks to our determination other disabled people will overcome their barriers and start to take part in such trips. We can only wish ourselves safe trips, exciting games and a lot of fun.
 

Pawel Parus