Sunday, 28. September 2014
THIS WAS PEACECAMP - Szilvi , coordinator of the Hungarian group

Peacecamp 2014 has been my seventh Peacecamp experience. Every year I believe I have seen and heard everything about the issues of the Middle East and every year I seem to learn more. This year was no exception in this respect. I learnt more aspects of the conflict, more personal stories and cried for more lives. It’s always a heartbreaking experience to listen to these young people sharing their eveyday lives with us, Europeans who live in a peaceful environment.
That is one of the reasons I keep continuing the project, so that Hungarian teenagers would learn to respect the freedom and peace we live in. And also to learn to listen to people who might have different opinions from us. This is not easy to learn, even for an adult but I can always be proud of students who apply for this program from these nations to learn such a hard issue in their summertime.
As I have been participating in this project for so long, I also have the experience to see several generations of Peacecampers grow up into thoughtful and considerate adults and sharing their experience and spreading the knowledge of respect and open-mindedness among friends and acquaintances.
When I introduced the project in our school a long time ago, I could hardly convince students to come along with me to Austria and take part in this experience. However, things have changed and now students come to me as early as in October to apply. The news of this sometimes painful and hard yet wonderful and uplifting experience travels fast and I’m delighted that more and more of our children are open to learn respect and equality.
Thank you.
Szilvi (Hungarian coordinator)

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