The NGO Védegylet (Protect the Future) organised a summer university in Hungary between 16-20, July, 2008. The university focused on development issues clastered around topics of climate, welfare and food & agriculture. Besides, there was a further classification in the form of thematic days - 'day of economics', 'day of environment' and 'day of participation' - which gave a focus to each topic. The programme offered great choice for participants since 3-4 seminars and workshops ran at the same time.
The summer university gave a good mixture of theory and practice, all in a very relaxed atmosphere in a naturally protected area close to Budapest. Resource persons came from Germany (Peter Wahl, Peter Fuchs), the UK (Patrick Mulvány, Ervin Menyhárt, Joe Greenwood, Alex Wood), from Austria (Heike Schiebeck, Dieter A. Behr, Lisa Bolyos), Belgium (Marta Ruiz) and there were also many participants from neighbouring countries (Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia) and from „Southern” countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Mongolia, China, etc.) who were temporarily studying at the University of Economy in Budapest.
Apart from the foreign guests, a lot of Hungarian NGOs and active local groups (local food sovereignity networks, climate friendly communities, Independent Ecological Centre) were represented and many other Hungarian citizens participated, mostly young adults and university students. Discussions were involving the audience; all seminars and workshops were interactive and the participants were eager to participate, to question and to make comments. This was an especially important dimension of the summer unviersity since first and foremost it was designed to be a training for activism for people who are interested in the work of civil society but haven’t yet get involved in it. One could happily see during the summer camp that the 110 participants, half of which were so far not involved in the civil society, were willing to participate actively and to get familiar with the representatives of NGOs, local groups and with their work. Many expressed their willingness to get more involved in such ativities in the future.
The unique and precious atmosphere made the summer university an unforgettable event for the organisers and a lot of participants.
Read more on the summer university incl. the cultural programme in a longer report from Reka Hunyadi, the main organiser from Védegylet - Link: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/summeruniversity_hungary.pdf
For further information please check out the website http://www.ceedev.org/ which is continuously up-dated with materials of the summer university.
Information provided by Réka Hunyadi, Vedegylet
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