(ANS – Würzburg: 22 February 2007) – - Two years ago the diocese of Würzburg, in Germany, launched a project to set up a network of the existing resources and to promote communication between parents of children with disabilities. The internet platform of the Catholic League of Families (Fdk) is called “Intakt” - www.intakt.info - and last month it registered 61.000 contacts. “The number of visitors has been constantly growing from an initial 17.200 to the present number,” says Artur Eisenacher, the Director of Fdk. This result guarantees the survival of the project: “The Bavarian Ministry of Finance has already agreed to further fund Intakt until 31 December 2008", Mr Eisenacher is happy to announce. The project is also supported financially by the diocese of Würzburg. The internet platform provides an opportunity for interested parents to submit questions and answers and also share their experiences. Also making contributions are others including training institutes, associations, organisations and Church institutions as well as specialists in activities for the disabled, who provide an expert forum and a community of support for the parents of children with disabilities. In addition to the forum the site also contains a variety of useful information for those in this situation: legal matters regarding employment and special provision to the addresses of nurseries and homes in the area and medical specialists. The portale also contains a database of addresses of associations for the disabled, advice centres, self-help groups etc with a total of about 5.000 records regularly updated. Every Thursday and Sunday evening there is a chat session for parents in which between five and fifteen regularly take part. In 2006, on three different occasions some experts also took part in the chat sessions replying in real time to questions such as “Prenatal diagnosis and its consequences ” and “Brothers and sisters of children with disabilities.”
