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The community of the Rákóczi Association has had a rich summer, as more than 15,000 people from the Carpathian Basin and the Hungarian diaspora communities of the world participated in the Rákóczi Summer camps and other events from 35 countries.
As every year, the focus of the summer programs was on secondary school students, who represented the active student population of the Carpathian Basin secondary school organizations of the Rákóczi Association together with their diaspora peers. However, the Association also organized programs for younger and older age groups.
For instance, mother tongue camps were an essential part of the Association’s summer events, mainly for children aged 8 to 14 from the diaspora communities. The aim of these camps was to give young Hungarians from abroad as much experience as possible of the Hungarian language and culture.
Photo: Facebook/Rákóczi Szövetség
Summer events aimed at older age groups included the All-Hungarian Teachers’ Camp and the Rákóczi Free University. The teachers’ camp has been held since 1998 with the aim of providing teachers from the Carpathian Basin and the diaspora with high-quality professional training in literature, history, natural sciences and public affairs.
Since 1989, at the end of each August, the Free University camp has provided an opportunity for young Hungarians from abroad to reflect together on the situation and future of Hungary and Central Europe through lectures on public affairs, science and economics.
Photo: Facebook/Rákóczi Szövetség
The association has not forgotten the children of Transcarpathia and Ukraine who are most in need:
At the end of June, it hosted a folk dance camp for 5,000 young children from Transcarpathia, and a camp especially for Ukrainian children attracted more than 200 children from the front lines of the war.
The camps gave children a chance to escape the hardships of everyday life in war-torn Ukraine and spend a liberating week in Hungary.
The tasks of the Rákóczi Association are far from over with the end of the summer, as in preparation for the start of school in September,
the registration fees of summer campers, together with donations from the Association’s supporters, are planned to be taken to around 500 settlements for the 10,000 pupils who are now starting Hungarian-language school.
The Rákóczi Association extended its school bus program to Transylvania last year, and runs it in partnership with the Cluj-based School Foundation, with financial support from the Hungarian government. As Hungary Today recently reported, the school bus network was further expanded this year, with the school bus program now available to Hungarian students in Lábnyik (Vladnic, in Csángóland, Romania), Bethlen (Beclean) and Szilágysomlyó (Șimleu Silvaniei) in Transylvania and Buzita (Buzica) in Slovakia.
Photo: Hungary Today
The aim of the program is to bring students from the Transylvanian scattered settlements to Hungarian-language schools, giving them the opportunity to study in their mother tongue. From September this year, 61 school buses will help 1,000 students a day to get to Hungarian schools.
Via Rákóczi Association, Featured image: Facebook/Rákóczi Szövetség