In eastern Hungary, two women with the same name fight their own way both poverty and the most tolerated form of racism in Europe. In these secluded villages, inhabitants are mainly Roma people. In order to teach poor families’ children how to value learning, Nóra L. Ritók created 14 years ago a school based on arts and talents development. Three years ago, Nóra Feldmár was finishing her studies of industrial ecology and joined Nóra’s organization with a plan: to assist villagers in the establishment of a construction field of biomass briquettes. She strongly believes that the mastering of a technology, even a simple one, can change life and relations between people.
Translation: Manon Pierre
(2/3)
"Talent is present everywhere, and great treasures can be lost if
these children’s potentials are not fulfilled due to their circumstances". It
is another Nora who speaks this way. On
a spring morning, I met Nóra L. Ritok.
After a memorable journey by train from the Hungarian capital, I arrived in
Berettyóújfalu, the biggest (small) town of this micro-area.
In the unusual school she created, a school where kids go every
afternoon to do art, Nóra is particularly busy that morning: before my
coming, she has conducted a training and has been interviewed by a journalist and
a photographer from the Hungarian daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet. The tendency of this newspaper is close to
the one of the FIDESZ, the party of Viktor Orbán, the current Prime Minister who maintained his
majority of two third during the elections of 6th April 2014.
When
it comes to my turn, Nóra gives
me all her attention. She speaks in a very concentrated manner, willing to
fully use this moment to transmit bits of her reality. Photos are passing while
Nóra comments living spaces that look like construction fields uncompleted. "These houses
have no water, sometimes no electricity. They live in one room,
sometimes six or eight children with the parents". She adds: "The education
system works but the teachers never go to the families, they don’t know how
these children live".
Before,
Nóra was also a teacher in a traditional
school. She particularly focused on Roma children who had nothing and did not raise
the interest of other teachers. Fourteen years ago, she decided to create a school that could change poor
children’s life, for the Roma but not only: a place where they can experiment,
create, be congratulated, realize their talents and develop a taste for
learning. In 2013, the school received 650 children and young people aged 6 to
22 years old. They live in the neighboring villages and every day, the educational
team of the NGO picks them up.
At
first, the organization dedicated its whole action to children through art
education. Then, after a few years, Nóra
understood that, without the support of the families, her action for the
children was necessarily limited. "I know this is
impossible to change this grandmother’s behaviour: she has never learnt, never
worked. Why would it be changing? But we can be in a partnership for children,
for her". Nóra shows me the girl smiling next
to her grandmother on the picture.
Years
after years, the Real Pearl Foundation has developed new actions meant to support
the families: food aid, embroidery workshops for women, biomass briquettes
production, monthly scholarships for the most deserving children… “With this
special support program, all the families feel that education is very
important”, reveals the ingenious Nóra.
Beyond this change of consideration upon education, the goal of the organization
is to strengthen these villages’ communities, to reinforce the abilities of
each as well as the connections between the inhabitants.
To widen the impact of her action, Nóra L. Ritok
has a secret weapon: her blog. Thanks to her extensive experience, Nóra knows that
her approach, the like method as she
calls it, is the only one working with people totally excluded from the society.
In a blog with many followers, Nóra
invites therefore mayors, teachers or even policemen to prefer a human
treatment of Roma people rather than pressure and discrimination. In her
articles, Nóra talks about precise situations that she considers unacceptable, and
without giving names she makes sure that those concerned recognize themselves. "It is more difficult to work with these
people than with Gipsy people. But I have to build
these contacts, I have to keep on smiling”.
Nóra releases strength and fragility at the same time. In fact, her best weapon is her sensitivity and her empathy
under any circumstances. She conceals nothing: indignation, determination, and some
fatigue, also, given the extent of the task she has chosen. Her warm smiles and
her gesture revealing great kindness are sincere. Nóra knows
that the public opinion battle can only be gained step by step. After a short
forty five minutes, I am won over. Are the two reporters of Magyar Nemzet struck as well? It is in their car that I leave Berettyóújfalu to reach the village of Told.
Continuation and conclusion in a few days