Press releases

Budapest, January 13, 2012 10:30

Anyone who calls or sends a text message to the donation line 1788 hello holnap! in January and February 2012 will support the endeavours of the Szempont Foundation. Magyar Telekom, now successfully operating the donation line for the tenth year, finds it important to support the improvement of Hungary’s health care and the enhancement of its services.

The Szempont Foundation was established 20 years ago by professionals whose first aim was to set up a stand-alone rehabilitation centre, an aim they attained by 2005. The organisation is mainly engaged in the rehabilitation of people who became vision impaired as adults. According to statistics and surveys, in Hungary approximately four to six thousand people a year lose their sight due to some accident or illness. Apart from psychological support the Foundation helps those who approach it with mastering the most basic skills (mobility, self-sufficiency, communication) in the course of elementary rehabilitation. This will be followed by occupational rehabilitation, i.e. looking for employment in a broader sense. Apart from providing support for the vision-impaired, experts also take part in sensitizing the society (e.g. through the involvement of family members and future co-workers).  

Those who lose vision fully or in part have to maintain their family, get to their workplace, handle their affairs, study and educate their children. The changed life situation requires the mastering of new skills and elementary rehabilitation calls for the availability of special tools (e.g. a long, white stick, video-magnifier, talking blood sugar meter). These tools help the social integration of vision impaired people by enhancing their level of independence and quality of life; however, because they are expensive, they are hard to obtain for the people concerned. The foundation maintains a pool of such sight improving or mobility and orientation supporting or, for that matter, life facilitating tools, which the vision impaired people who approach them may borrow. This borrowing facility enables those in need to first try these high-value tools before they decide to buy them. The foundation intends to expand and maintain this pool of tools from the donations received through the donation line and also to provide remedial pedagogical support to those who borrow them.

For more information about the Szempont Foundation and its activities see web site: http://www.szempontalapitvany.hu/.

The donation line also known from the slogan “1788 – the Human Call” can be accessed via Magyar Telekom’s fixed line and mobile phone networks. Both the call and text message costs HUF 100, which is VAT-free (with the exception of calls initiated with the Domino top-up card). The fee for calls received in January and February 2012 will be donated in full to the Szempont Foundation, which will use it for the maintenance and expansion of its pool of tools to promote the social integration of the vision impaired people who approach the foundation.