The government’s Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Programme has become a success story among the policies for Hungarian communities abroad in recent years and has added new impetus to Hungarian life in the diaspora, the state secretary in charge Hungarian communities abroad at the Prime Minister’s Office said on Tuesday.
János Árpád Potápi said in a statement that the scheme launched in 2013 was a new initiative aimed at building ties between diaspora communities, the mother country and the Carpathian Basin, while strengthening the identities of ethnic Hungarian communities and organisations that were, in some cases, several thousand kilometres away from Hungary.
Addressing the closing conference of people working under the programme on a scholarship in Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Potápi noted the scheme was originally launched with 47 scholarship-holders and now includes 656. Fully 36 of them worked with 31 receiving organisations in eight countries in the southern hemisphere between March 1 and November 30, he added.
In line with a decision by the Hungarian Permanent Conference, 2021 has been named a year of national renewal, and in addition to new programmes, existing schemes will continue, including Kőrösi Csoma, he said.
featured image Árpád Potápi’s Facebook page