Press Releases

Budapest, July 6, 2012 11:00

Those who call or send a text message to the 1788 hello holnap! Donation Line in July and August 2012 will support the aims of the Baráthegyi Foundation for the School of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Magyar Telekom has successfully operated the donation line for the past 10 years and attaches importance to helping with its support the improvement of Hungarian health services and the creation of equal opportunities.

There are over 83,000 vision impaired people in Hungary who have to overcome many difficulties others are unaware of in the course of their everyday life. In the absence of this knowledge people who see do not know how they should approach their blind fellows, who, as a result, often live in isolation and have to cope on their own.

The Baráthegyi Foundation for the School of Guide Dogs for the Blind was established in 2006 with the aim of improving the quality of life of vision impaired people and helping their integration into society. Their main activity is the training of guide dogs and handing them over to blind people so that they can live in greater freedom and improved security. The Foundation believes that a dog is not merely a supporting tool but a partner accepting and helping the vision impaired person together with their shortcomings, good and bad traits and relates to them with unparalleled tolerance in any life situation. A guide dog can be the eye of its master and thus it represents a key to getting about safely. With the help of the dog the world opens up for the blind and their quality of life greatly improves. Moreover experience shows that dogs have the ability to bring the blind and the seeing closer to each other and help them form contacts and accept each other, thus contributing to the ability of blind people to live a fuller life.

Although this helping role of guide dogs cannot be doubted, there are hardly more than 100 trained dogs to accompany their vision impaired masters in Hungary. The main reason for this is the lengthy and costly process of training as the commitment and conscientious and thorough work of the foundation is not enough for the dog’s preparation, which consists of three main parts; financial resources are also greatly needed to create suitable conditions for training. This especially applies to the hand-over process, as the success of blind guiding is based on the cooperation of the dog and its selected master: a long path full of practicing leads from the first meeting to the blind guiding examination. The donations collected through the donation line will be used by the organisation for the maintenance of the rehabilitation centres that ensure the hand-over of blind guide dogs to their masters and the training for cooperation as well as the helping professionals. The organisation hopes that thanks to the donations it will be able to hand over at least 12 blind guide dogs in 2012 and continue building the bridge between the blind community and the seeing.

More details about the Baráthegyi Foundation for the School of Guide Dogs for the Blind and its activities are available at http://barathegyisegitokutya.hu/.

The hello holnap! Donation Line also known from the slogan "1788 – the human number " can be accessed from both the fixed and the mobile networks. The call and the text message equally cost HUF 100, which is tax-free (with the exception of calls initiated by Domino top-up cards). The fee of calls received in July and August 2012 will be donated in full to the Baráthegyi Foundation for the School of Guide Dogs for the Blind, which will use this amount to continue training guide dogs for the blind so as to improve the quality of life of an increasing number of vision impaired people.