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Introduction

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Multiculture Association primarily concerns itself with minorities and refugee problems in Hungary. Its target group mainly involves children and young people struggling with economical and social difficulties due to their refugee status or their membership of the affected layers. Besides helping them manage their everyday issues and overcome their eveyday problems, Association Memebers also place a considerable emphasis on promoting their integration and providing them with more and more opportunities to spend their freetime in an active and constructive way; one of the most important aims is to contribute to children and young people s personal development through non-formal educational methods. Furthermore, the association also focuses on introducing the cultures represented by these people. The association works in two locations: in the refugee camp situated in Bicske (a small town about 40km away from Budapest) and in the Kesztyűgyár Community House situated in the 8th district of Budapest.

Due to its activity, volunteers at MultiCulture Association are required to be sensitive to social issues concerning minoritites and migration, furthermore to show motivation in helping in practise and taking concrete actions.

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EVS: volunteer service at MultiCulture Association

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MultiCulture Association hosts volunteers for 6 months: volunteers spend half of their service time in the refugee camp in Bicske;  they spend the other 3 months in Budapest, joining the team working basically in Kesztűgyár. In practise this means that volunteers work in two different locations month after month, which requires more flexibility than the usual.

Accomodation: during the service time spent in Budapest volunteers are accomodated in a flat shared with each other. In Bicske volunteers are accomodated in the bungalows of the camp itself; these bungalows are used by them exclusively. In both cases volunteers always have private rooms. Food: the association provides the volunteers with money (about 875kn a month) to arrange their everyday meals. As far as travelling is concerned volunteers have the possibility to get travel card every month, but  volunteers are free to choose other alternatives such as using bycicle to travel.

MutiCulture Association assigns great importance to mentorship, for this very reason right after the recruitment process (and before arriving) the prospective mentor gets into contact with the volunteer to create the possibility for the volunteers to put their questions and to release concern. Mentors are selected according to the personal needs of the volunteer (e.g. language knowledge) and they are often ones of ex-volunteers who are perfectly aware of  the problems to be faced by volunteers. The association also takes it into consideration that it is more ideal if the mentor is a nonmember of the association itself since this way volunteers can also turn to the mentor in case of workplace problems.

Work: during the time spent in the refugee camp besides helping the "dwellers" of the camp to manage their everyday issues (e.g. administrative issues, making timetable for the wahing machine, giving assitance to run language courses etc.), volunteers s work also involves organizing different activities for children to provide support for their personal and educational development. Volunteers s work is always helped by the members of the association to overcome possible languge problems. It is hard to foresee how many children are among the refugees, and it can happen that there are no children at all. In this case, volunteers can also work at Kossuth Zsuzsa Children Home around the children.

During the time spent in the Kesztyugyar, where the office of MultiCulture Association can be found, volunteers basically do community work among children and young people belonging to disadvantaged minorities in the area. This mainly means organizing different free time and daily activities, workshops and different outdoor activities in Fuveszkert to them.

Besides, any other ideas for running own project are welcomed.

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Useful Link:

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http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=36000304801