Stories Exchange Project, Hungary 1995-1997

Following the October, 1995 Prague workshop “European Partnerships for Inter-Ethnic Dialogue” (see “History: Stories Exchange Project, Czech Republic 1994-1997”) the Fund for New Performance/Video began to work on a Hungarian adaptation of the Stories Exchange Project with a new organization founded by the Institute for EastWest Studies, the Carpathian Foundation – then known as the Fund for the Development of the Carpathian Euroregion. This new Project has been associated with the Foundation’s Integrated Rural Community Development Program, an initiative which involves Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and Poland.
Work-in-progress on a Hungarian Stories ExchangeProject and the video documentary of the Czech project were presented and discussed in Budapest in September, 1997 at the Second World Assembly of CIVICUS, the Washington-based global organization for citizen participation. Subsequent to that session, CIVICUS endorsed the Stories Exchange Project as an innovative and effective tool for capacity-building in local communities throughout the world.
The Stories Exchange Project, Hungary was initially developed in conjunction with an economic development project of a Romany group based in Eastern Hungary, “Breaking Out of Despair: A Micro-Region Action Plan for Those of Gypsy Descent.” It was funded by grants from the Carpathian Foundation, from the Hungarian government’s National Minorities Foundation, fromPhralipe Hernadvesce Independent Gypsy Organization, and was supported by the Hungarian Institute for Culture.