Hungary

National Organiser for Schemes

National Organiser for Schemes
Monika Lehöcz

Otthon Segitunk Alapitvany (H-S Hungary)
Bartok Bela ut 37
H-1114 Budapest
Hungary
Tel/Fax: +361 209 34 30
Email: otthonsegitunk@webdream.hu

http://www.otthonsegitunk.hu/

Mission Statement

Home-Start Hungary is a family support network. It provides friendship and practical help to families with young children. It is free of charge and works in a preventive way by training volunteers to help strengthen families and thereby strengthening the local community.

How it has grown

In the first years H-SH trained a group of 10-15 organisers for a total of 140 hours every year. At this time, training of a new group of organisers depends on the availability of financial resources and the actual demand of the network building. The organiser's job is to build up a scheme in their area and make it work with the help of volunteers and based on the local possibilities.
H-SH not only coordinates their work, but provides a professional support structure for the teamwork.

How did it start?

Home-Start has been known in Hungary since the beginning of the early nineties and in 2000 H-SH participated in the International Study week in London. In 2001, after H-SH became established, the first group of 13 organisers “graduated”.

In 2002-2007 an additional 53 organisers received their certificates, and 405 volunteers took part in preparatory courses. Family visits began in 27 settlements and eight local H-S schemes were registered.

Since 2002 the National Meeting in May has been a tradition, with the participation of organisers, volunteers, friends, supporters of H-SH and their families. The volunteer forum is an essential part of its programme. Guide books for volunteers were also developed which are accessible in English too on the international web-site. We are continuously looking for calls for applications, volunteers, and families to be helped.

Funding

We have received funding from the following: Ministry for Health, Social and Family Affairs; Phare; National Employment Fund (OFA); Know How Fund; Maholnap Hungarian Welfare Foundation; European Union fund-raising application (HEFOP 2.2), other foundations and private donors.

Media

We have good access to both the National and Local media. The increasing number of telephone calls shows that H-SH is becoming more and more widely known.

A Testimonial

How Home-Start helped me? I survived an incredibly difficult period of my life only with the help of Home-Start. We had just moved to a new flat with our one year old daughter, while I was attending my last year of the college, and my state of health deteriorated dramatically. My larger family including my mother-in-law, aunts and other relatives lived several hundreds kilometres away. I felt isolated not having help from anyone. I also needed a lot of encouragement to grow confident taking care of my child. I am extremely grateful to the organizer for her genuine love and help. Thanks a lot to Home-Start and I hope they will be able to continue to help others for a long time.

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