Roma And Friends Camp: A Week Of Building Tolerance In Hungary

Organized since 2008, this unique English language tolerance-building summer camp hosted five ethnically diverse groups of five English teachers and their thirty-two teenage students of both Roma and non-Roma origin. The diverse groups came from three different geographic regions of Hungary where the minority population is underserved.

The camp was led by a group of trainers and camp counselors from America and Hungary. The staff, under the supervision of Camp Director Ms. Katalin Szabo, designed and led students’ and teachers’ activities and programs such as popular American and international sports, arts and crafts activities, peace education, folk dance, and English as a Foreign Language classes with a strong focus on American content in geography and culture.

As teacher trainers, Dr. Daniel Banks and Mr. Adam McKinney of DNAWorks in New York City held motivating in-service training workshops for the teachers to help them further develop their methodology and problem-solving skills in the fields of dealing with minority issues, multicultural education, and community building. These active sessions resulted in stimulating conversations about culture, ethnicity, color, class and identity, and grass-roots initiatives.

At the end of the camp, teachers decided to set up an online platform where they can continue working together after the camp. As a result of this week-long camp where many new friendships were born, disadvantaged students and their educators formed an accepting and strong community that can now better foster tolerance, peace, and equal rights.

The U.S. Embassy in Budapest will organize follow-up programs to help this community of talented people carry on the camp’s message and also act in their own local environment."

Source: U.S. Embassy Budapest

Photo: Campers and their Teachers at Balatonlelle (Courtesy photo by Camp Counselor Mária Varsányi)