National Activity Plan 2006: Hungary
National Activity Plan 2006: Hungary
20 June 2006
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- Lack of information leads to misunderstandings, prejudices and a tendency towards xenophobia. This is why UNHCR is organizing a local festival called "The Street of Diversity". It will be an open air event on Ráday Street, Budapest's main pedestrian.
- Two refugee music groups, a refugee folklore dance group (Afghans), a Greek music group, a Caribbean, a Moroccan and a Hungarian music group are going to give open-air concerts on Ráday Street on 17 June.
- An exhibition comprising of 10 panels with photographs and basic data about refugees (who they are, where they come from, how does UNHCR help them, statistics, maps, etc.) will be set up.
- There will be tents set up for NGOs and refugees to do handicraft workshops where the Hungarian visitors can try out or learn African hair-braiding, Asian henna-tattoos, etc. Some NGOs also plan to display their posters, publications at stands or tables in and around the tents.
- There will be human figures made of wood displaying the life stories of refugees written on them. These so called "silent witnesses" will stop the passers by for a few minutes of reading and contemplation about personal life-stories of real refugees.
- Some 15 restaurants and cafés have indicated so far that they wish to join UNHCR and Menedék in celebrating World Refugee Day. They have offered to prepare the specialities and national dishes of refugees on the basis of recipes collected by UNHCR.
- In one of the tents set up in the street, there will be a Living Library where "readers can borrow living books", or in other words; interested visitors can meet and talk to refugees one on one. This is a unique opportunity for refugees and Hungarians to interact and learn about each other in an informal, friendly atmosphere.
- In the Piccolo Theatre, a chamber theatre located in one of the side-streets to Ráday Street, Dutch drama writer Ad de Bont's play "Mirad: a boy from Bosnia" will be performed twice on 17 June.
- The Vörösmarty Cinema, located in a street parallel to the venue of World Refugee Day in Ráday Street, has offered to hold free of charge screenings of refugee-related films on 17 June.
- Within the framework of World Refugee Day and the 1956 Institute, printing brochures and posters about the similarities between 1956 and the current refugee crises; photo exhibition at the venue of WRD in Budapest of UNHCR's photos depicting Hungarian refugees in Austria in the 1950s and 1960s.
- In association with the Ministry of Culture, UNHCR will print brochures of Béla Bartók, a famous Hungarian musician, as a refugee; inform media and provide toolkits to journalists about Bartók's years in exile.
- The peak of World Refugee Day commemoration in Hungary will be a concert on the big stage of the Ferencváros Summer festival on 20 June at 20: 30 hours. The Rabasa music group (Cape Verde / Netherlands) will give a free concert in the honour of the World Refugee Day.