At the international opening ceremony of the Maltese Charity Service's PAIRS programme in Tarnabod, Deputy State Secretary for Social Inclusion of the Ministry of Human Resources Katalin Langer stated that the Ministry involvement in the project is important because the lessons and conclusions that can be jointly gained from those who successfully realise initiatives provide important feedback.

The Ministry's priority partner, the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, evaluates successful models and good practices within the framework of the PAIRS programme. The programme summarises and presents successful Roma integration programmes at an international level. Positive examples from eight European countries are collected over a period of two years.

Deputy State Secretary Langer stressed that it was a brave deed to recognise that measures must correspond to the reality of life, and the innovative solutions of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service provided conformation of this in a practically orientated way from the non-governmental side. The organisation's innovative integration programmes, which are based on personal presence, and on-site orientated support models function because the solutions they provide adapt to the challenges met at ground level. According to the Deputy State Secretary, the success of integration depends on people: the role of human resources is at least as important as the programme's financial background.

The conference provided an opportunity for participants to gain first-hand knowledge of the Gyereksegély ("Child Support") programmes, the Biztos Kezdet Gyerekház ("Steady Hand Children's House") and other successful inclusion programmes.

The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service is a leading partner in the European Union programme that brings together 18 non-governmental and state -run organisations from South-East Europe with the aim of collecting and presenting to Europe all good examples which look to the future and provide long-term results in integrating Roma people and the realisation of their social inclusion, and of making proposals for the utilization of both European Union and national funding earmarked for this purpose.

(Ministry of Human Resources)