FCF launched its new project “Our New Neighbours – Colourful Ferencváros” in the summer of 2017.
The idea of the project came up earlier but it gained impetus at a meeting that was organised in early 2016 by the Global Fund for Community Foundations (CFCF). CFCF, a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world, sought to explore the role community foundations can play in addressing the challenges of mass migration. We submitted an application to the call that CFCF announced, our project got a green light and we began the project planned for one year
Who are our “new” neighbours?
All those people who did not grow up in a given community but came to be part of it later. In the course of our lives most of us will experience moving from one place to the other, change our place of living, and try to integrate into cultures differing from ours to smaller or greater degrees. We have all been “new neighbours” somewhere, some time in our lives. In the course of our project we would like to reach out to those people who have come a longer way than most of us before ending up in Ferencváros: foreigners who left their country for one reason or another and now live, study or work in the district. We would like to learn about their experiences and the ways in which they are connected to the district, explore how we can help their integration and how do they/would like to take part in the life of the community. We would also like to highlight the colourfulness of the district with all the tastes, knowledge and skills and viewpoints which a culturally diverse community implies.
In the course of the project the following activities are planned:
- Reaching out to foreigners living/working/studying in the 9th district to learn about their stories and experiences. Please help us find interviewees and click HERE for our call.
- Building contact with organisations and institutions active in the area. So far, we have met the following organisaitons: Artemisszió Alapítvány, Oltalom Karitatív Egyesület, Magyar Helsinki Bizottság, Migszol – Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary, Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Kéttannyelvű Általános Iskola, Ferencvárosi Szociális és Gyermekjóléti Intézmények Igazgatósága, Magyarországi Evangélikus Egyház Diakóniai Osztály, Menedék Migránsokat Segítő Egyesület, MigHelp – Migráns Segítség Magyarország Egyesület. We would like to thank them for their help and all the information that they have shared with us!
- Organise an exhibition of the portraits of “our new neighbours” who agree to show their interesting stories to the Ferencváros community.
Our long-term goal is to share with “our new neighbours” the joy of working for the community and involve them in our work either in the capacity of volunteers, supports or as colleagues.
In early October 2017 we were invited to a meeting in Messina, organized by CFCF, where we had the chance to meet other community foundations and non-governmental organisations and jointly explore the possible roles and tasks we can take to further integration and promote acceptance and a peaceful co-existence. Please click HERE to read our account of the meeting (in Hungarian) and HERE to read a CFCF’s summary.
For further information please contact Orsolya Polyacskó, project coordinator, at [email protected].