Official praises government schemes supporting ethnic Hungarians

The government’s Kőrösi Csoma Sándor and Petőfi Sándor programmes are exemplary and unique in global comparison, the state secretary for ethnic Hungarian communities abroad said on Wednesday.

The Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Programme helping diaspora Hungarians and the Petőfi Sándor programme supporting ethnic Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin are flagship projects of Hungary’s policy for Hungarian communities abroad, Árpád János Potápi said at the opening event of a week-long preparatory course for scholarship-holders.

The Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Programme was launched in 2013 with 47 scholarship-holders and expanded with the Petőfi Sándor programme two years later, he said.

Currently 225 people receive scholarships under the arrangements of the two schemes, he added.

Both schemes are aimed at helping ethnic communities retain their national identity and strengthen cohesion through Hungarian language teaching and cultural activities. Over the past few years, a total of around 1,000 young people were granted six-to-nine-month scholarships to help Hungarian communities all over the world.

Source: MTI