Hungarian American Coalition News, 1994 (3. évfolyam, 1. szám)
1994 / 1. szám
Member News Continued The Toledo, Ohio - Szeged, Hungary Sister City Program Since October, 1990, Toledo and Szeged have developed a fruitful mutually beneficial sister city relationship. This occurred shortly after Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur led the U.S. government by passing legislation to sanction sister city relationships between the reborn democracies of Central Europe and the U.S. Leaders of both the Toledo city government and the local Hungarian community including Rev. Martin Hernady, Peter Ujvagi, Eleanor Kahle, and Peter Silverman worked hard to initiate the process and begin educational, governmental and business exchanges. As part of their efforts they established a new nonprofit development organization, Toledo Sister Cities International, (TSCI). Thanks to a remarkably productive series of meetings, open houses, and planning sessions in Szeged in early 1993, Elizabeth Balint, Deputy Director of TSCI, was able to involve hundreds of Szeged citizens in efforts to build new cooperative programs between Toledo and Szeged. Since her visit, • a Szeged-Toledo Friendship Club was formed in Szeged, to host visitors and work more closely with interested individuals from Toledo; • Five representatives of the first democratically elected municipal government of Szeged came to Toledo for three weeks on a Sister Cities International/USIA Training Program. • In October, 1993, an eleven-member business delegation came from Szeged to Toledo to show their products at the Toledo Business and Industrial Expo, and to learn more about business opportunities in the U.S. In addition, TSCI successfully completed projects to promote Hungarian culture while raising funds locally by operating an “international Holiday House” at a local shopping mall. The group also arranged transfers of hundreds of textbooks, medical supplies, even a donation for relief of Szeged’s Serbian sister city. Realizing the possibilities of greater successes through joint programs, we welcome interested partners from either the U.S. or Hungary as we all work hard to link forever our two great countries so that we both may prosper through the challenges of the present and better days of the future. - Péter Ujvagi Report on C.H.E.F. Hungary The Seattle-based Comprehensive Health Education Foundation is a nonprofit organization which established a foundation in Hungary in 1992 to promote its special programs within the school curriculum to teach young people about a healthy life-style and positive thinking. Through the use of proven methods of role-playing, puppet theatre, video and board games, Hungarian children learn to say NO to drugs, alcohol, sex, smoking and violence. By now over 900 schools have used CHEF’S Hungarian material. Dr. Margo Dévai, Director of CHEF Hungary, has received major funding from the Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel, which has enabled her to provide free training and materials to teachers in Kazincbarcika, an area where unemployment and poverty make health education particularly beneficial. The combined efforts of CHEF and the Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel, both members of the Hungarian American Coalition, are making a significant contribution to the education of Hungarian children at a time of transition and difficult moral choices in Hungary. - Helen Szablya Send us the name and address of your friends and relatives who would like to receive our newsletter. We’ll make sure they get it! Image Workshop in Budapest, Hungary When several members of the Hungarian American Coalition (HAC) and the Hungarian Communion of Friends (MBK) found themselves in Hungary for various assignments last year, they offered their expertise to Hungarian Foreign Minister, Géza Jeszenszky: to develop a more positive image for Hungary in the West. The workshop, which was held in the Budapest Clubroom of the Foreign Ministry on October 15-16, 1993, was attended by Coalition members, Edward Chaszar, Julianna Chaszar, Karoly Jokay, Stephen Benko, András Ludanyi, Szabolcs and Zsolt Szekeres. Some of the representatives of various ministries with public relations or media/press responsibilities met for the first time during this workshop. In this sense, not only the substance of the discussions but the networking “side-effect” can be viewed as positive. The workshop was opened by Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky’s keynote address: “Hungary’s Evolving Image.” A discussion followed on the workshop’s objectives, and on the Foreign Ministry’s current efforts in projecting a positive image. For the next two days a total of nine panels discussed various questions, including such relevant points as the present status of the “outer world’s” perceptions; the role of exile Hungarians in planting positive and negative stereotypes; the need to concentrate efforts to influence elites in the economic, political, media and scientific worlds. How such influence can be maximized; and finally, how these efforts can be brought to bear in a crisis situation as for example, in relation to the present threatened condition of the Hungarian population of the Vojvodina.- Dr. András Ludanyi Spring 1994 • Hungarian American Coalition News • 7
