Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog presented the Móric Lukács Awards for the first time this year. The Awards may be presented to people or civil organisations that have excelled in their community organisation activities and whose work has facilitated the development of donation culture. The recognition was bestowed on HÁLÓ (Network of Catholic Communities within the Carpathian Basin), President of the Misi Nyilas Foundation Sándor Szabó and folk dancer József Szigetvári.

At the award ceremony, Zoltán Balog said that by definition, civil movements are about the world of citizens, about self-organisation in which the aim is not personal success but the interests of the community. “The future of Hungary also depends on whether we are able to once again make it a country of strong communities, a nation of strong communities.”

He pointed out that, while getting on the same wavelength as post-modern society, we must make a “community” out of the “audience” because the audience is generally passive, it leaves after the applause and the celebrations because the experience if over; in a community, however, every member’s input is essential. He added: “To make the passive crowd truly feel that they are responsible for their own fate and that each member can contribute with their best abilities – that is the essence of a civil movement.”

HÁLÓ is a Hungarian Christian community network that primarily addresses adult Catholics but is also open to other Christian denominations. The organisation views the whole Carpathian Basin as its area of activity, a unique achievement among Hungarian civil organisations. Sándor Szabó performed tasks related to the recovery of nationalised church property as secretary to the bishop at the time of the regime change in Hungary, and created the opportunity for many young Hungarians to receive a religious education.

He re-established the József Lévay Presbyterian High School and re-launched the Protestant Journals of Sárospatak. Today he manages the Misi Nyilas House and is a prominent supporter of the Hungarian Scout Association. József Szigetvári contributed to the work of the Forrás Folk Dance Group founded in 1983 as a pioneer of the dance house movement. He is the leader of the Friendship Cultural Centre in Százhalombatta and has been the organiser of both the Summerfest Folklore Festival and the Folk Art Fair for two decades.

(Ministry of Human Resources)