Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights (DemNet Hungary)
A project in the framework of Promoting Development in Europe: Towards a Critical Mass and Beyond - HUNGARY
Mission
DemNet works to create a democratic civil society in Hungary and other developing countries. It aims at strengthening non-governmental organizations, increasing their role in society and contributing to their sustainability. Through its grant-making and grant-distributing activities, DemNet provides financial resources to NGOs and through various projects contributes to the empowerment of civil society organizations. DemNet places a special emphasis on supporting community initiatives, and considers cooperation, transparency and professionalism as basic principles in its supporting policy.
Target
To raise a basic level of awareness about development issues amongst decision makers, opinion leaders and university students, "the future's decision makers".
Activities
Media training
November 2008
We organized a 3-day training for university students about the relationship between international development and the media.
The program of the training was framed in a way so that participants gather extensive knowledge on:
- The history and structure of international development cooperation
- HRBA to development
- The characteristics of printed and electronic media
- The directions of journalism on foreign policy
- The representations of global issues in the media
In the second part students acted as foreign policy reporters. Their task was to write articles and record and edit their fake news report for a fictional TV channel. Students were helped by professional journalists and a film crew. The rule was that news had to contain the words "water", "human rights", "development cooperation" and "Ministry of Foreign Affairs". MRG's partner Anedew Mesfin, an Ethiopian human rights activist also participated in the training as a lecturer.
Outcome
30 trained students, 4 videos and 5 articles. More than half of the participants stayed active after the training and contributed to the project.
Film club
December 2008
As a continuation of the training students watched and analyzed documentaries with the help of development and film experts to enhance their media skills & expressiveness.
Campaign training
May 2009
A second training for students focused on media and campaigning techniques. Students acquired skills on media communication and editing, and produced and edited their own campaign videos about human rights issues related to development.
Outcome
10 trained students and 3 campaign videos which are already used by other NGOs.
Click here to watch the videos.
Round tables
September 2008 -
Students participating in the trainings were involved in round table discussions where politicians, development experts & media representatives were invited. There were discussions about the Hungarian ODA, media & development, the HRBA and the new water paradigm.
Outcome
4 discussions with more than 80 participants, mainly relevant decision makers and experts.
Writing competition
June 2009
We organized an article writing competition on development issues for these and other university students. The winning articles were published on our awareness raising website or in our regular bulletin, Volumen. Globalance.hu provides news and analysis on development issues and Volumen is produced for decision makers with articles on international development as part of our advocacy work.
Outcome
In the framework of an earlier project we created Globalance.hu, our awareness raising & campaign website providing news and analysis on global issues and Volumen, our regular bulletin on development issues. Most of the projects outcomes (films, articles, etc.) were channeled to this website, which altogether contains more than 100 articles, many essays, maps, pictures and videos and was visited by more than 5000 people during the last 10 months. The website was advertised to university students with stickers, posters and e-mails. Articles published in Volumen were delivered to all the members of parliament and relevant decision-makers in the polity.