Advocating for Educators in Hungary - New Perspectives for #WomenEd Attendees

We reached out to the Hungary Helsinki Committee, which is a Budapest-based non-governmental watchdog organisation that, 'Protects human dignity and the rule of law through legal intervention and public advocacy,' in hopes of hosting a guest speaker from their team. 

We were lucky that Zsofia Moldova, a lawyer from the Committee, agreed to come speak to us about the current issues surrounding education in Hungary. She gave an informative, and at times shocking, presentation to the attendees, which led to a great question and answer session at the end.

One of the successes of this event was that we were able to reach a broader audience. One of the goals of the #WomenEd Hungary team is to provide events that are dual-lingual, with activities and discussion in both English and Hungarian. Zsofia was fabulous in this regard, switching back and forth between the languages so that all our attendees could appreciate the event fully. 

Another success of this event was that we were all able to get a broader perspective on education. The #WomenEd Hungary team has noticed that sometimes our events can be too insular, with only perspectives coming from educators. To have the viewpoint from a lawyer was refreshing as well as thought-provoking, seeing things from a new angle.

Many of our attendees spoke to this change in perspective during our question and answer session. 

Judit said that she appreciated a, 'legal approach to this problem, for as teachers, we never think to ask about what we might legally need or be entitled to in our workplace.' 

Bori commented further on that saying, 'I live through the changes in Hungary, but I never can clearly see the escalation of issues,' and that this event helped her see educational challenges as a process. 

Mona, who is new to Hungary, said that this event was very helpful for her as it provided some ground rules for how to navigate the Hungarian education system. She can now build upon these in order to facilitate her aspirations as an educator. 

In general, it was reassuring to all attendees that there are organisations who are working alongside educators to help them, and that support networks are there and available.

We are proud that #WomenEd Hungary is one of these groups, and we can't wait until our next event to build that community even further!

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