IDAHO -- stand up against homophobia and transphobia!

Yepp, 17 of May is the IDAHO -- nah, not that one, it's a different one. Symbolic date? Exactly. May 17 was chosen as the day of the event because homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization on May 17, 1990. Since then, there are several examples of the diversity of approaches and actions that organisations engage in. One thing is common: those who participate think that it is an opportunity to raise your voice, send a message and fight for human rights -- a never-ending struggle? Arising from prejudice and ignorance, homophobia and transphobia can affect LGBTQ people’s lives in many ways. Every day, members of the LGBTQ community face disapproving comments, verbal attacks, hate speech, and physical violence, simply because their gender identity and/or sexual orientation is not what is accepted by the mainstream society. What's more in case of Hungary -- declarations of homophobia and transphobia can be heard even in the Parliament. And at this rate, Budapest Police’s practice of banning the pride march every year will soon become a Hungarian national tradition... nice.

Let's see how we celebrated IDAHO in Budapest! Organized by a couple of NGOs (including Budapest Pride, Amnesty International Hungary, Háttér Support Society for LGBT People, Labrisz Lesbian Association, the Hungarian LGBT Alliance and TransVanilla Transgender Association) the event took place at Deák tér from 4 pm and there were numerous programs. You can read the official press realease partly written by me (link here), you know I am one of the organizers of the Budapest Pride. What you could choose: support the Budapest Pride March with a video message, make sidewalk art with us, sign the Baltic Pride petition of the Amnesty International or join a discussion about transphobia held in Café Vis Major. The key is to say NO somehow.

I could not attend the discussion, but I spent two hours at Deák tér by interviewing strangers what they think about the pride march in general, if they plan to attend this year's etc. We recorded a number of speakers for this video of support. Besides one extreme homophobe guy, all the answers were relevant and instructive ...and I have to tell you my favorite one: I asked a middle-aged women who took her kids why she thought it was important to attend the event -- and what she replied was soooo encouraging -- she said that she wanted her children to be raised in a society in which same-sex couples were just as usual as hetero ones. Lovely!

On the Spot in Egypt - Amnesty International Women's Group

As you may know, I am one of the founders of the Women's Group at the Amnesty International Hungary. We already arranged and participated in some events dealing with human rights issues, especially about women's rights. (for example the cookie action on women's day -- if you don't remember, you can read back, link here). So, while Amnesty is famous for lobbying, we regularly organize events which obviously have awareness raising campaigns, but we also want to "entertain". Ok, this is not the expression I was looking for, but the aim is to show an aspect of a certain country, territory or a specific case. We want to involve, invite, inform etc.

Last Wednesday we organized an event dealing with Egypt. The title "Denial and Repression" refers to the actual situation of women. The event itself was organized at Fogasház (oh yeah, I'm in love with ruin bars so it is not that surprising that I wanted to have it there). Program: film screening with a talk afterwards.

So, Egypt. On the Spot. What's this? It is is a documentary run by two young Hungarian people in her twenties, Cseke Eszter and S. Takács Andris. We invited Eszter to tell about her personal experience and to give us a broader picture of what the life is like there. The Egyptian episode was shot a year ago when a series of civil demonstrations took place against the Mubarak regime -- millions of protesters from various social, economic or even religious background demanded the overthrow of the regime... but since then, the life of an everyday men has not changed much. 

The audience was larger than we expected (at least larger than I expected...), approximately 60-70 people attended and they were pretty much curious, asked a lot of questions, so it was a nice surprise (for me). And of course, who does not like watching a movie and talking about human rights issues while drinking beer at a ruin bar? :)

George Clooney under arrest?!

So, there is a site that I regularly check: mashable.com. They are giving helpful advices from a special point of view, that is social media. The first post I saw yesterday was entitled "Twitter Users Show Support for George Clooney After Arrest" (link here) and it was pretty shocking. Not just because mashable is not famous for celebrity news but also because I had no idea what happened...

Let's see the most important questions: who? what? when? where? why?

Who: Amnesty International (yeaaahh)

What: demonstration

When: yesterday

Where: Washington

Why: for human rights

There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. The Sudanese Armed Forces are conducting a campaign of indiscriminate bombing against civilians in both states. The resulting destruction of livelihoods combined with the blockade of humanitarian aid is putting hundred thousands of people on the brink of starvation.

Amnesty International called a protest against the escalating humanitarian crisis -- to bring awareness to the current situation in Sudan. The demonstration was aimed at the Sudanese leader, Omar al-Bashir, who is accused of “provoking a humanitarian crisis and blocking food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains in the county’s border region with South Sudan.”

George Clooney participated in this event, he is known as an enthusiastic activist... he has been arrested for civil disobedience during this demonstration outside Sudan’s embassy. Well... Ok... how shall I put it?... So, I don't personally like him, not to mention his protest and arrest were orchestrated propaganda events... perhaps it is just my opinion.

You should not misunderstand me, I do appreciate when Hollywood stars deal with human rights issues, but in most cases these acts are just self-marketing tools. I do know that he made highly-publicized trips travelled to Sudan a lot of times... (now I think I am too sarcastic) but I honestly can not decide whether his activism is just part of his brand or he really cares.

Cookie action on Women's Day

So, happy international women's day for yesterday! I think I already told you something about our plans for this "holiday". If yes, I'm going to repeat myself -- sorry about that. If you remember, some days ago we "celebrated" the pay gap day, and based on the inequalities we had a compensational idea. "We" in this case means the Women's Group at the Amnesty International Hungary -- our team gets more and more excited when thinking about actions :) so, since men get more money for the same job than women, (in the EU, the difference is 17%), we wanted a reverse day -- and what can be more symbolic than women's day?!

We distributed free biscuits on Deák tér, which is a central place in Budapest, but the trick was that while women got a full portion, men received only a half... just to highlight the pay discrimination in a more creative way. We offered the sweets for free but we had an honesty box -- you can guess that only a few people donated some coins. It is not surprising, people usually don't pay much attention to these things. So, please if you can, support us, help! (donation option under the help tab).

Fortunately we met some really nice persons who were interested in our work, asked a lot of questions not just about the situation of women but also about the organization. And... imagine, a friendly old grandpa even brought us some flowers! Conclusion: we should continue what we do because there are people outside who trust us and thinks that we, "people" can change the world.

Our lecture during the United Nations Conference

WOOOOOOTTT! We rock. That is the conclusion of today. I already told you about the presentation our Women's group at the Amnesty International was supposed to do. The conference was held in Piliscsaba, at Pázmány Péter University -- the whole event started at 10. We arrived just in time so we could even hear the previous lecturer. 

 The topic - maternal death - was quite hard, we did a lot of research in the past week and when we put together the material we still needed to make a presentation out of that. I'm this creative-fancy-colorful design person so I happily undertook this task, not to mention that I'm in love with Prezi. I prefer Prezi to PowerPoint because I'm sure that our thinking is not linear (at least not mine), not focused and can not be structured like that. Prezi provides a surface for free association, you can arrange your thoughts "in space", thus the result is a more complex, spectacular presentation. If anyone is interested can check the material below (note that it is in Hungarian):

Approximately 40-50 people attended our lecture, but all of them paid attention, some made comments, asked questions -- I guess this is what I would call engaged audience. And this is what I usually lack in case of the Hungarian university systems but luckily this conference was an exception. The whole experience was fascinating. And we were also gifted a bottle of wine. Thank you, thank you!

Since the event was held today, I have not found any pictures about us taken during the presentation, but we posed with our strawberry wine outside :)

Close The Gender Pay Gap!

So what is this about? What's this gap? The gender pay gap is the average difference between men's and women's hourly earnings. This gap reflects ongoing discrimination and inequalities in the labor market which, in practice, mainly affect women. Getting 17% less than you deserve? Women in Europe experience this everyday... so this day, the "pay gap day" is another opportunity to highlight the problem.

In addition, our Women's Group at the Amnesty International organizes an event for women's day (March 8) that will also emphasize the inequalities. According to our plan, we will sell cookies and their prices will be in direct proportion with the average salaries women and men receive for the same job. Thus, men will have to pay more for the same portion. This is our compensation. But, I am going to write about this project in a later post -- I mentioned here only as an introduction. 

Amnesty International - 50 years

This commercial or let's just say video was made last years for the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Amnesty International. 50 years passed but "we still have a long way to go"... 

There is no concept why I post it now, perhaps just because I like the visual aspect of it.  

Giving my first lecture at a university

Good news! Our Women's Group at the Amnesty International Hungary started it's work: several translations have already been made, we publish at least one post a day to our facebook page -- we already gathered some encouraged followers and likes.

What's more: we (as representatives of AI) were invited to give a presentation on maternal death at Pázmány Péter Catholic University!!

There is going to be a conference and exhibition over the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. There are eight goals -- they encompass universally accepted human rights (like freedom from hunger, the right to basic education, the right to health etc.). The target date is 2015 by which the MDG are to be achieved.

The topic of maternal death is quite complex and considering the school's religious background it is going to be hard to talk about the problem of health care or abortion. These "factors" are of course inevitable when talking about mortality rates -- since we consider dignity, health, freedom and human rights more important than christianity... we love challenges, so we have to face the controversial milieu of "conservatism". Amnesty has a different interest in general: to raise awareness (yes, again my favorite expression), thus it focuses on social campaigns and lobbying. A catholic university is definitely not the place where we can spread petitions against unequal treatment... simply we are just not allowed to do so. However, organizing such a conference is a major step to promote human rights in a religious nature.

It was yesterday when we had our first session to put the presentation together and it seems, that I'm going to be one of the lecturers. Woaaah! It is a big thing for me -- while I'm a student at one university I'm giving a lecture at another one. This is a fantastic opportunity for me. We have nearly 2 weeks left, so I have plenty of time to prepare. Can't wait :)

Launching Facebook Page

Oh, I nearly forgot to tell: we already launched a Facebook page (click here!) for the Amnesty International Hungary Women's Group -- whoever is interested can follow us, read what we publish, comment on our work etc. By the way, you can make comments here is as well, I gladly welcome recommendations! 

Women's Group of AI

And the day has come -- we founded the women's group of Amnesty International Hungary. Hurrraaahh! But, giving a name caused a problem:

• violence against women: too long
• women: too broad
• women rights: not exactly our profile
• women for women: already used...
• together for women: sounds awful

Not to mention the language, should it be in Hungarian or should we agree on an English one to follow the international trends? We still have time to decide... 

However, we could finally meet each other in person. Great start, everyone is enthusiastic, we already mentioned hundreds of projects to work on: monitor press, gather international news and make translations, arrange material for future university lectures and organize some cultural events -- yep, it's me:). All in all, no need to rush, we will see, but I am engaged. 

Introducing Amnesty International

The secondary reason why I started this blog is because I want to share my experience. I just jumped onto a new path -- non governmental institutions have long been things that I viewed from far, I never thought that one day I would work for free, but for good at the same time. Things have changed or I have changed or most probably: both -- I applied for various jobs at TASZ and Helsinki Committee, already joined the organizer team of the Pride and also, I am one of the 5 founders of a new group belonging to Amnesty International. Now, I'm going to introduce that one.

The group's main profile is violence against women, but we are not planning to become an emergency service, rather a support service (in terms of legal assistance for example). What is good in this "job" is that I know what I'm doing is important, helpful, and I can also use my art manager qualifications: I already highlighted some of my ideas about events I want to organize. As long as we follow and keep the basic rules and principles of Amnesty, the group has a relatively large autonomy, we can do whatever we want, arrange meetings, hold film screenings, open exhibitions etc. Awesome. I'm enthusiastic enough to make this good.

Actually, I was lucky enough: I never lived through any source of violence, nor did I ever had an aggressive partner, but I do think that without any personal experience I am capable of doing it well. I believe we (the group) can demonstrate the topics through various programs authentically and comprehensively. Fortunately, the office employs hundreds of activists, they are going to be helpful for the work we are doing.