Parents end protest over treatment of disabled

A group of parents who have occupied part of the Polish parliament with their disabled children are abandoning their protest at levels of state assistance payments after more than a month.

One of the mothers, Iwona Hartwich, said yesterday the demonstrators felt cut off from the world and worried about their children’s health from living in a parliament corridor for 40 days.

As the parents pushed their grown children in wheelchairs away from the building in Warsaw, they were met by cheering crowds.

The families were protesting at the low level of aid to the disabled. They secured an increase this, but not as much as they had hoped. The plight of the vulnerable group has captured attention in Poland.