The last stop of the study tours organized within the project titled „Regional cooperation in V4EaP countries: experience exchange and best practices” was in Miskolc and its surroundings, where the participants travelled on 24-26th January 2014, and where they made themselves familiar with the activities of the successfully operating NGOs.

Zoltán Palik, the head of the Nyilas Misi Foundation – Civil Information Centre welcomed first the Transcarpathian guests. He talked about their organization, whose duties include the legal consultation, network development, providing support to tender writing, but they organize baby-mother club and also operate a dance house.

It was particulary interesting to visit the Factory arena established at the initiative of the civil sector, which employs hundreds of young people. The members of the organization, created by the support of young extrem sport lovers (skatebording, break-dance, climbing, roller skating) and their parents almost twenty years ago, achieved a number of prestigious ranks at the related competitions.

The next stop of the study tour was the maternity home operated by the local reformed parish. The organization’s aim is to help the unmarried mothers to finish the school and gain a profession. As one of the founders of the organization, Eszter Szigetvári reported, that the civil maternity home, which operates twenty five members now, began its work at the principle of volunteering, and although to develop the family-friendly community needed financial support, though emphaty and helpfulness played tha main role.

After nearly an hour’s bus ride, the team arrived to the village of Szentrőlád, where the Bhim Drom Association operates. Many catch up programs were implemented in the settlement with the vast majority of Roma inhabitants, as well they support the Kalo Drom traditional preserving band and regularly organize handicrafts workshops, trainings. The mushroom plant was their largest project, where one and a half tons of meadow mushroom are grown weekly. The plant is important not only in terms of the employment of the Roma, but also in terms of the revenues, since they can finance a number of community programs thanks to the products sold, said Norbert Káló, the plant manager.

 The memebers of the Ecological Institution for Sustainable Development Foundation, which deals with the distribution of organic cleaning products and the development of energy-saving methods, such as the solar charger switching to laptop or the radio with solar battery, shared several interesting experiences with the participants. They promote the local craftsmen’s products in their Ecohouse, as well as the tourist information office in Miskolc, where there is an information office, a craft shop and a cozy café under the same roof.

During the meeting the heads of the NGOs in Miskolc and its catchment area, in addition, that they presented the civil initiatives, the tender writers discussed a number of interesting issues, for example, how Transcarpathian people could be involved into the implementation of a program aiming the development of a greater or lesser community.