THE FOCUS ON HUNGARY: INTER CAMPUS THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS PROTAGONISTS

Small, disheveled children turn to look at the car as they huddle around the deserted dirt road littered with trash. On the left are unfinished looking houses blackened with soot from wood stoves used for heat and broken windows reveal the cold, concrete rooms inside where families of 8-10 sleep every night.

In the nearby concrete field of the gipsy settlement, boys and girls laugh and kick a rugged soccer ball, oblivious to the puddles of mud in which they are playing. It is the adults, who merely peek out of their homes in the fading light, who wear misery like permanent masks.Hungary is a country with a growing Roma population that is severely short of skilled and educated labour in many fields. The country has moved towards fighting against greater ethnic segregation in schools and also in different sports activities. About 60 percent of Roma in Hungary live in secluded rural areas, segregated neighbourhoods, settlements or ghettos. This segregation depletes the quality of education the Roma children receive and have an effect on their socialisation as well.Over the last decade Love is the Answer Non-Profit Association has been working in these peripheral areas of society to help the underprivileged creating equal opportunity and access to quality education. In Hungary, the focus of Inter Campus has three folds, in the northeastern part of Hungary the insensitive of the project is to help Roma children with their integration to society at large through football, by learning new skills, attitudes, values, patterns of behaviour to be able to function properly within the culture. Through Inter Campus the participating children have learned many social skills and how to work in teams with others. They are regularly participating in the yearly Inter Campus Hungary Summer Camps where they get to spend time away from their settlements, meet other children and adults from different backgrounds. Friendships are born between the Roma and non-Roma children through playing football together, thus achieving integration.

The second focus of Inter Campus in Hungary is working with orphan children in the capital city of Budapest, where they can be part of the welcoming family of Inter Campus.

The third focus of the Hungarian project is located on the far east side of the country where due to urbanisation poor villages stay abounded. Inter Campus is building a community of young families and their children through football, thus giving hope for the future and a collaboration for benevolence, generosity and camaraderie

31.01.2020