International Childfriend News
4th International Childfriend Festival
Uzhgorod (Subcarpathia, Ukraine) 25 June - 2 July 2005
Together in Europe, for 60 years in peace!
The Hungarian Childfriends organized the Festival again, this year in Uzhgorod with the participation of Romanian, Hungarian and Ukrainian children. This year's motto "Together in Europe for 60 years in peace" was driven by the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe, emphasizing challenges to keep up peace in the world and in the closer communities every day, according to the values of the IFM-SEI: Span the world with Friendship!
Official opening was visited by Hungarian Under-Secretary of State Andras Barsony and Ukrainian MP Istvan Gajdos. Participants torch walked to the Glory Park and laid wreath at the monument of the Soviet soldiers who lost their lives figthing in the antifascist coalition. Children met Hungarian and Ukrainian veterans fighting Hitler's troops in WWII.
Participants pointed out that even though we live for 60 years in peace in Europe we still have a lot to do to achieve real peace in every corner of Europe.
A special part of the programme was, when participants visited Kisszelmenc, a village of mostly Hungarians, of which half belongs for 60 years to the Soviet Union, nowadays the Ukraine, while the other half belongs Czechoslovakia, nowadays Slovakia. A 84 year old told the participants the one-time cemetery lies on today's Slovakia and he couldn't visit his seven relatives lieing there for a long time. The barbed-wire border line could not have been approached, he remembers cases when they threw letters hidden in snowballs to each other, pretending to be drunk by loud singing.
Participants formed a live chain on both sides of the border, among houses 10-15 meters from each other, and symbolically opened the border, village mayor Jozsef Illar took a small piece from the fence and handed it over to Festival President Vilmos Hanti.
Participants by the end of the one-week Festival decided on writing letters to the three most important Ukrainian state leaders to ask the opening of a small border cross in the village, which proposal was accepted already by the Slovakian parliament.
Link: About the 1st Festival (including its Report and Declaration)
Link: Pictures from the 1st Festival, 2002
Link: About the 2nd Festival, 2003
Link: Pictures from the 2nd Festival, 2003
Link: About the 3rd Festival, 2004
Link: Pictures from the 3rd Festival
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5th International Childfriend Festival
Uzhgorod (Subcarpathia, Ukraine) 25 June - 1 July 2005
Together in Europe, for 60 years in peace!
The Movement of Hungarian Childfriends organized a Festival together with the organization of Ukrainian students and parents, in Uzhgorod (the Ukraine). To date we organized already this Festival three times in Romania and twice in the Ukraine, each time presenting a theme concerning children.
We hosted children between ages 12 and 16 on the Festival. We travelled by train from Budapest.
The participation fee of the participants included a solidarity sum for Ukrainian children.
"Together in Europe for children rights!"
Festival Programme
Country nights were cultural spotlights of the programme, held in theatre room.
25 June, Sun: Arrival, preparation for opening night, from 20h opening night in the toy theatre of Uzhgorod, then torch walk. Social evening, disco at the accomodation
26 June, Mon: In the morning strolls in the city in groups, with strolling-paper and 18-20 exercises. In the afternoon free programme, probably bathing. Countrynight.
27 June, Tue: Morning: visit to the castlemuseum, later to open-air skanzen. Countrynight.
28 June, Wed: Full day trip with cold lunch. (Casle of Huszt, in case of good weather bathing in Lake Andrásfalvi) Countrynight.
29 June, Thu: Trip to Kisszelmenc, the divided village. This village belongs to partly Slovakia and Ukraine, for 61 years. Before a border was opened in 2005, family members couldn’t visit each other in different parts of the village. Acquaintance of the village and the traditional football match will be there, international team against the local team, dance house.
30 June, Fri: Morning is free, preparation for finishing programme, farewell from the city, finishing programmes in groups.
1 July, Sat: Departure
For more information please contact us at .
Link: About the 1st Festival, 2002 (including its Report and Declaration)
Link: Pictures from the 1st Festival
Link: About the 2nd Festival, 2003
Link: Pictures from the 2nd Festival
Link: About the 3rd Festival, 2004
Link: Pictures from the 3rd Festival
Link: About the 4th Festival, 2005
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PAX :: Application
For eternal tenure right in the Transylvanian PAX Childfriend Resort
For local governments, NGOs and small communities
Our public benefit organization seeks supporters and consortium co-operations to realize the “PAX Childfriend Resort” in Geoagiu-bai, Romania. The resort is to be an educational centre for peace and tolerance in the common European Union. The two thousand year-old traditional spa town is located 470 km (290 miles) from Budapest, 50 km (31 miles) from Deva and 18 km (11 miles) from the Arad-Brasov main road (where a highway is to be built). There are woods, waterfall and a spa in the traditional Romanian rehabilitation town with many popular sights within reach.
The 936m2 site is located at the entrance of the town and is already bought. The planned 5-level building with tower has a base of 703m2. At the moment the building plans are waiting for authorization. Having enough support the building could start in August finishing in 2006.
During the planning educational and leisure functions were both considered.
Basement: disco, computer room bathrooms, store rooms and personnel room.
Ground floor: janitor room, kitchen and dining room.
1st and 2nd floors (each): 1 double room for teachers with balcony, 2-2 four-six bed room for 20 persons, with bathrooms.
Attic: 2 double bed apartman with spare beds, mini kitchen, balcony and stairs into the tower.
Hosting in the resort is planned in 3 categories:
1. During the summer poor (Romanian and Hungarian) children are to be hosted for 8x1 weeks, upon the proposal of local governments and NGOs.
2. For 7 months forest schools, exploring excursions and children, youth, teacher and parent trainings are to be hosted. (We wish to use the small return of this 7 months to finance the 2 months free vacation of the poor children.)
3. For 3 months we ensure the eternal tenure rights of the greatest supporters of the building. The cost of the eternal tenure right of the building (capable to host 48-52 persons) for 1 night per year is 4000 euro plus the later upcoming overhead proportionally. So, if we receive 7x4000 euro from a local government, NGO or even a big family, then the beneficiary could use the resort for 7 nights the same time each year. At the end, we ensure an eternal tenure right of a single night for 80 euro. (This income is spent totally on building and equiping of the resort.)
Fixing dates is in the order of applications on the above seen e-mail or phone.
Ideas of our members for the colours of the resort
The planned outlook of the PAX Childfriend Resort
Posted: November 2005
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Stop killing innocent children in the Middle-East
Middle-East declaration of the IFM-SEI,
which was also adopted by the heads of the delegations
of the Global Village Youth Festival/IFM-SEI Camp in Maidstone, summer 2006.
Please spread the word and lobby in your country on behalf of the children
who need your solidarity on every side of the conflict.
IFM-SEI reaffirms the need for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East. We are deeply concerned at the continuing conflict in the Middle East, by the pain and tragedy which continues to afflict innocent civilians and in particular children. Once again IFM-SEI strongly reiterates its call for an end to the hostilities in the region and for an urgent, immediate and total ceasefire.
The logic of peace, not war, should prevail in these testing times for the international community, as should the logic of law, not force, in the region. No argument should be allowed to stand in the way of the clear, obvious and basic demand for a ceasefire. The continuous breach childlren’s rights in its definition by the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child by all involved parties is especially not acceptable! It must stop immediately!
The IFM-SEI, convinced that it is only through dialogue and negotiation and not through war that peace will be reached. The IFM-SEI believes that the time has come to work for the holding of a new Peace Conference to lay the foundations and a new framework upon which the countries and peoples of the Middle East, as well as the international community, can look forward to a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the entire region.
All involved parties, politicians and actors have to unconditionally respect children rights and in particular Article 6, that every child has the inherent right to life and to ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child. The acceptance of child casualties by all parties is a complete denial of any sense of humanity and civilisation. From now on all decisions and actions taken by the involved parties and the international community have to put the life and well being of all children as their first priority!
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