{"id":2885,"date":"2025-10-06T18:54:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/?page_id=2885"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:13:14","slug":"sjalfsbjorg-i-arnessyslu-a-sudurlandi","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/um-okkur\/adildarfelogin\/sjalfsbjorg-i-arnessyslu-a-sudurlandi\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-Rescue in South Iceland \u2013 The Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sj\u00e1lfsbj\u00f6rg, the association for the disabled in \u00c1rness\u00fdsla, was founded on November 15, 1958, at the Selfoss Cinema. The first chairman of the association was Steingr\u00edmur \u00d3lafsson, and he served for the first two years, after which Valger\u00f0ur Hauksd\u00f3ttir took over as chairwoman. Initially, the association's area of operation was mainly the artists' colony of Hverager\u00f0i, Selfoss, and the surrounding area, but later its territory expanded to \u00c1rness\u00fdsla and eventually to all of Southland. The association is one of the five oldest. Th\u00f3r\u00f0ur J\u00f3hannsson became chairman in the mid-1960s, and around the same time, P\u00e1l\u00edna Snorrad\u00f3ttir moved from \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur to Hverager\u00f0i. They worked closely together, as they were colleagues. Notice was taken of how diligent their students were in selling badges for Sj\u00e1lfsbj\u00f6rg. When Th\u00f3r\u00f0ur passed away, P\u00e1l\u00edna took over as president. She advocated for each president in the association to serve for only six years at a time and considered it a good practice.<\/p>

The sale of the flag and the Self-Help newspaper was the association's main activity, in addition to vocational matters. The association held, like other associations, the Self-Help national congress (in 1967) and also hosted around one hundred Norwegians who visited Iceland in 1979 and stayed in various places around Hverager\u00f0i. The association last held the Self-Help national convention in Fl\u00fa\u00f0ir in 2004.<\/p>

On Sunday, September 19, 2004, the trails of Haukadal Forest were made accessible for the first time. Svanur Ingvarsson, who was then the chairman of Sj\u00e1lfsbj\u00f6rg in South Iceland, and Hreinn \u00d3skarsson, the forester, opened the trail in the symbolic manner of sawing through a tree branch, a sign that an obstacle had been removed. The background to this initiative was somewhat romantic. Svanur and Hreinn, who was a great advocate for accessibility, lived on the same street in Hverager\u00f0i, and one day Svanur told him that he had always wanted to get out into the forest in a wheelchair. "That was the spark that ignited a fire that burned until this matter was resolved," says P\u00e1l\u00edna Snorrad\u00f3ttir, who again took over the presidency of the \u00c1rness\u00fdsla chapter from Svanur and held the position during the 50th anniversary year of Sj\u00e1lfsbj\u00f6rg, Ltd. The Pokasj\u00f3\u00f0ur provided significant support for the initiative in the Haukadalur forests. Hreinn has now become the director of Heklusk\u00f3gar and is already considering how to apply the extensive knowledge he gained from building the trails in Haukadalur Forest. Finding the right material for the trails, a material that would compact properly, building bridges where needed, and connecting the trails was no simple task, but this fund will be used for similar projects in the future.<\/p>

In Hverager\u00f0i, Sj\u00e1lfsbj\u00f6rg has ensured that during the reorganization of the town's committees, representatives of people with disabilities were granted access to the committee for planning, construction, and fire protection, and were granted the right to freedom of speech and to make proposals in the committee.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sj\u00e1lfsbj\u00f6rg, f\u00e9lag fatla\u00f0ra \u00ed \u00c1rness\u00fdslu var stofna\u00f0 \u00feann 15. n\u00f3vember 1958 \u00ed Selfossb\u00ed\u00f3i. Fyrsti forma\u00f0ur f\u00e9lagsins var Steingr\u00edmur \u00d3lafsson og var hann forma\u00f0ur fyrstu tv\u00f6 \u00e1rin en \u00fe\u00e1 t\u00f3k Valger\u00f0ur Hauksd\u00f3ttir vi\u00f0 formennsku. Til a\u00f0 byrja me\u00f0 var starfssv\u00e6\u00f0i f\u00e9lagsins a\u00f0allega listamannab\u00e6rinn Hverager\u00f0i, Selfoss og n\u00e1grenni en s\u00ed\u00f0ar v\u00edkka\u00f0i starfssv\u00e6\u00f0i\u00f0 til \u00c1rness\u00fdslu og loks til […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":768,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_theme","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2885","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14107,"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2885\/revisions\/14107"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjalfsbjorg.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"word per minute","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}