Eleven Awards Granted to Hungarians Abroad

Budapest, August 19 (MTI) – Ten organisations and an elderly lady received the award for their work for Hungarian communities abroad at a ceremony held in Parliament on Tuesday, on the occasion of the August 20 national holiday.

Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen highlighted the unity and integrity of the Hungarian nation.

“We can only thrive as a nation in full if each of our nation’s parts nurture their heritage,” he said.

Arpad Janos Potapi, state secretary for Hungarian communities abroad, said the honour is awarded to organisations, institutions and personalities in public life, education, culture, religion, science, mass communication and business in recognition of their outstanding work for Hungarian communities abroad.

The awardees include a Calvinist foundation and a Roman Catholic charity of Transylvania, the Szekler museum of Romania’s Cernat (Csernaton), the Hungarian Social and Cultural Association of Slovakia Csemadok, the Zele Tribe fostering ancient Magyar traditions in Slovakia’s Dolne Saliby (Alsoszeli), the Vojvodina Hungarian daily Magyar Szo, a Vojvodina organisation holding competitions for secondary pupils, the Transcarpathian weekly Karpatalja, a Swedish society set up to foster the Hungarian mother tongue and the Hungarian Cultural Council of Canada.

The only private individual was 101-year-old Ilona Tamas, a retired teacher who lost her Slovak citizenship after she had applied for and was granted Hungarian citizenship.

Photo: MTI – Tibor Illyes

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters