crime
How can an NGO work independently when it receives government funding? How can we activate and make responsible the members of a Roma settlement, if local helpers provide them with aid and donations on a regular basis? How can an educational initiative that holds afternoon workshops for children living in a Roma settlement be sustainable if all the teachers are paid employees? According to Bagázs, there is no way. The organisation that for the past five years has been working at the Bag Roma settlement located 39 kilometres from Budapest does not accept government funding, intends to initiate changes by activating the locals instead of being an intermediary for donations, and manages its development workshops for students with the help of volunteer secondary school and university students instead of paid educators. This way, instead of conserving vulnerability and a state of being under-privileged, they are working on bringing the people living in the Roma settlement and the members of wider society truly closer to each other. However, both parties need to take important steps in order to achieve this. Because if we want to live in an inclusive society, we all – Romas and non-Romas, citizens and decision-makers – must take responsibility.
Your answer does not really matter. For who is good and who is bad? Who has never made a mistake or an error? And is there anyone who never had any good deeds? These are not the most important questions if you want to see the human in anyone. Everyone is searching for happiness, you too and also those who committed a crime. Everybody goes through hell. Tragedies, dreams and hopes, families torn apart. These are performances where inmate fathers can show their children what they are capable of. They turn into dragon, witch, dog, they are present, they tell stories, they play and proudly show themselves to their children.
It’s not only ponces and gangsters that tap a single sex worker for up to ten million each year, but the solid protectors of order as well - police officers - who, since a new regulation came into force three years ago, may impose fines of up to HUF 300.000 on sex workers, several times a day. The map of violence created by the Advocacy Association of Sex Workers raises awareness to the regulatory gaps, abuse and discrimination that cause a lot of undeserved suffering in all spheres of life to the boys and girls in the trade, most of whom did not choose this vocation as the most attractive one out of a huge array of excellent options, to begin with.
On average, a woman dies each week in Hungary as a victim of domestic violence. Recently there have been years when the number of victims was as high as 70 a year. Women that cannot raise their voices any longer, fates that cannot change for the better any more. We can learn about their stories at the Muted Witnesses march that takes place on 21st November, where we can find them written on red female figures. Yet we still cannot see or hear the stories of over a million Hungarian women who are regularly abused by their partners, or who become victims of violence at their workplaces or in hospital. Or maybe we just don’t want to hear and see..? Just don’t let the tip of the iceberg poke our eyes out – the 70 dead women that cannot be ignored any more. Who are responsible for the violence, and what can we do so that women can live in safety?