"An unusual project is underway to turn a Roma village in northeast Hungary in a a very special tourist destination.Bodvalenke is an absolutely desolate, hopeless little place, populated 90% by Roma, with no employment and no chance of anything, in the back of beyond, 10 kms from Aggtelek.
Now, led by a brilliant Gypsy painter, János Horváth, the villagers are undertaking to paint frescoes on the walls of the houses, plus create the basic infrastructure for receiving tourists (for illustrations and further info see www.bodvalenke.eu). Later other (not only Hungarian) Roma painters will also be invited, so that eventually the whole village will become a huge open-air exhibition of Roma art (and culture). Money raising is currently underway.
"I got very angry when Magyar Gárda was set up, for I didn't think that should be the answer of Hungarian society to the problems posed by poverty," says project founder-activist Eszter Pásztor. "So I then set out to discover this 3rd world Hungary, was first shocked by the usury issue and then developed a model (already functioning, even if only on a minute scale) for lending to the poor (Grameen Bank adjusted to our conditions).
"In the course of wandering around I went to Bódvalenke and was struck by the utter misery and hopelessness and beautiful surroundings of the village. And then I suddenly remembered an Egyptian village in the middle of the desert which I had visited as a tourist - that village had no resources either, but it lived off the fact that they painted naive pictures on the walls, and tourists came flocking there from all parts of the world."
For more information, offers of support/sponsorship contact Eszter Pásztor (excellent English)- by clicking here - tel. 355-2345, 214 6069
15.06.2009