Support Students at Dr. Ámbédkar School (Hungary)

This Giving Tuesday, we ask for your support for the Dr Ámbédkar School, a one-of-a-kind, majority Romani high school in northeastern Hungary. Your contribution will go towards equipping and winterizing newly constructed athletics and recreation spaces to promote student learning amidst the ongoing pandemic.

The school

2016 documentary about the school, "Angry Buddha": https://magyarhangya.hu/film/merges-buddha/

The Dr. Ámbédkar School is unique in Hungary, and I've been lucky to volunteer with its students over the past four years, while in Budapest for my dissertation research, remotely in Chicago, and over summer 2021, on the school grounds to help create new garden and recreation spaces for its students. Located in Miskolc, Borsod County, in the country's deindustrialize northeast, the school provides a pathway to high school graduation for students from multiply disadvantaged social backgrounds. As the school's English language instructor Nora Tyeklar explains, "Most of the Ámbédkar students are of Roma ethnicity and received their elementary school education in segregated schools, in segregated classrooms, or in schools where teachers had given up on them. There is a history of segregating policies in the Hungarian education system that has brought into the existence segregated schools through the country among its counties, cities, and villages...In Borsod County, drop out rates among students coming from multiply disadvantaged backgrounds are among the highest rates nationally; for Roma, this is all the more so."

The project

With your generous donations last year, and through the support of a grant funded by the Davis Projects for Peace , we were able to undertake a number of critically needed construction projects at the Dr. Ámbédkar School and its affiliated Martin Luther King dormitory. This project, carried out in August and September 2021, brought together Dr. Ámbédkar students and faculty, landscape architects from across Europe, and graduate students from the University of Chicago International House to construct community gardens and composting areas at the school, install a half-court basketball court at the dormitory, and convert three unused garages into exercise and recreation spaces. (Sarath Pillai's blog posts about the summer project can be found here .)

But work remains! We ask for your donations today to help finalize the project in a number of key ways. While the garages are insulated, additional funds are needed to wire and heat them for year-round use. And although grant funds helped cover the cost of some exercise equipment, further donations are needed to purchase instruments for music classes, to acquire lockers so students can store their belongings safely, and to pay for athletic training and intramural sports days to truly make these spaces sites of community connection.

Why your donation matters

Your contribution will help support the students at the Dr. Ámbédkar School and the Martin Luther King Dormitory in the following ways:

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For additional information about the Dr. Ámbédkar School:

Dr Ámbédkar School Facebook page

Information on the Dr. Ámbédkar School's scholarship program

You can also donate directly via bank transfer using the following details:

Financial institution: MagNet Magyar Közösségi Bank Zrt.

Account holder: Dr. Ámbédkar Ifjúsági Egyesület

Address: HUNGARY 3532 Miskolc, Tátra utca 2.

Routing number: 16200106-11616685

International bank account number (IBAN): HU56 1620 0106 1161 6685 0000 0000