Hungary – ERGO Network

Crowdfunding for Grid Detective Game – Autonomia Foundation

Crowdfunding campaign for Detective Game

The Autonomia Foundation and the Detectivity Creative Education and Experience Center have jointly developed the Grid Detective Game – following the successful implementation of other detective games with a similar social purpose. Our own experience and international research prove that the transfer of objective facts is not the most effective in shaping attitudes. It can also be said that many people, when they feel that a program wants to change their thinking or want to pass on some knowledge to them, distance themselves from it and lose interest. However, during detective games, participants are basically busy solving a crime, they are active all the way through – not just involved in knowledge transfer – so as they play, they almost unknowingly acquire knowledge and start thinking about topics they usually avoid. Furthermore, prejudices and stereotypes about the members of a group can be most effectively overwritten by a personal meeting and conversation with the members of the group.

In this game, both the player gaining knowledge and a personal encounter appear, as while participants have to investigate the details of a crime in a disadvantaged village, they can also meet in person with the suspected Roma boy, played by a professional Roma actor for authenticity. During the game, they learn a lot about the situation of the rural Roma in connection with the boy’s story and can identify with the boy step by step during the investigation. After the successful conclusion of the investigation, there will also be a conversation in which young people will be much more active, raising questions and thoughts on Roma integration than they would otherwise after the fresh experience and the excitement of the investigation.

The investigative game has already reached many groups of students and has proven to be successful and effective among the participants. At the same time, there are many classes and schools where such a program would be needed, but financial resources are not available.

Everyone can support the donation campaign to allow 100 young people to take part in the Grid Detective Game and to meet and face issues that redraw their image of disadvantaged Roma. You can support the campaign here.

The games will take place in the first half of 2021.

Promotion of sustainable gardening and healthy food: training, booklet and e-book Butterfly Developments 2019

Promotion of sustainable gardening and healthy food: training, booklet and e-book
Butterfly Developments 2019

Pro Cseherat had a busy year 2019. It organized several community events and published two publications on sustainable eating and gardening. Pro Cseherat can proudly state that the participants in the programs have become a community.

Garden: chemical-free vegetables for home
In 2019 we continued our garden program in Nagydobos, a small town in one of the poorest areas of Hungary. With our community garden, we help the livelihood and the integration of Roma families living in extreme poverty. Those who join the Butterfly Garden program learn gardening practices throughout the agricultural year, and can take home all the vegetables they produce. Each garden can satisfy the yearly vegetable needs of several families.

Training: healthy and sustainable households
This year, gardener practices have been completed by a series of trainings promoting chemical-free gardening, recycling, healthy eating and household planning. We explained to our gardeners how chemical-free vegetable growing contributes to the sustainability of our planet. During several cozy joint picnics, they learned healthy cooking and preservation techniques. They also learned about composting, waste management and recycling. We even sew reusable shopping bags together. In September we presented our vegetable delicacies (jams, salads, spreads, cakes etc.) with success at the International Pumpkin Festival in Nagydobos. We have also published our trainings in a brochure with tips and recepies that can be used daily to support the everyday sustainable life.
http://www.bffd.hu/tedd-jobba95

E-book: Would you love to love lentils? – Everything about the fabulous pulses
Why are pulses useful for sustainability? How can we integrate them into any kind of diet? What basic nutrients do we get from them? All of this is summarized in one e-book, decorated with wonderful illustrations. The book concludes with a chapter entitled “Creative Kitchen,” which provides tips for readers to create different lentil-pea-bean wonder dishes every single day of the year. The book’s chapters were presented at tasting events throughout the year.
http://www.bffd.hu/szeretned-szeretni-a-lencset-e-konyv93

Reality check on Roma local development in Hungary

Reality check on Roma local development in Hungary

One of the main objectives of ERGO Network is to create strong National Roma Working Groups (NRWG) in France, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The NRWG aim to be strong coalitions where Roma stakeholders, leaders and community-based organizations can connect and exert bottom-up pressure on administrations in order to take positive action to address Roma exclusion.

In Hungary, our member Butterfly Development has organised the 2nd meeting of the NRWG on 13-14 September in the form of a 2-day study trip with accompanying workshop in the Nord-East part of Hungary.

The main objective of the event – organised in close collaboration with the Alliance of the Spokespersons of Roma Minorities of Nógrád County – was to provide a platform for developing appropriate working relations between the local decision makers, Roma organisations and pro-Roma civil organisations, by means of sharing and evaluating good practices of local development with and for Roma communities in Nógrád County. The participating Mayors and the representatives of their selected collaborators from Roma civil organisation were invited from the Nord-East region, i.e. from Nógrád, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Szabolcs-Szatmár counties. The State Secretary being responsible for social and Roma inclusion also attended the second day of the meeting, together with the Catholic Bishop of the Nógrád County.

The participants of the NRWG meeting visited two small settlements suffering from multiple disadvantages, namely Nagybárkány and Varsány, to collect personal practical experiences about the effects of complex local development resulting in new types of institutions and services or new local employment opportunities built on local traditions (e.g. folk art or agricultural roots) based on public work. The accompanying workshop provided an effective opportunity for brainstorming and summarizing the main objectives of necessary further development, the necessary collaborators to achieve them and the necessary actions. The participants firmly committed themselves to continue their common work and to extend the scope of activity of this network. Some Mayors already offered to host the next NRWG meeting and share their good practices.

For more information and pictures read here