DÓRA GÖNCZŐ: IS THIS AFRICA? – YES, IT IS! :)

This Is Africa! – Community day

On Sep 29, 2019, on a wonderful sunshiny day, Stefánia Palota (Stefánia Palace) hosted the community day This Is Africa! where, once again, Taita Foundation was present. At our booth, visitors had an opportunity, among others, to gain familiarity with our job, while in exchange of donations, they had the chance to buy various handcrafted ornamental objets d'art, jewelry, gifts, coffee and tea; we also prepared a set of quiz questions, and those who answered the questions correctly received candies.

For me, this was the first exhibition-volunteering-job, and it was a positive experience to see how many people are curious about the Foundation’s activity, as well as being interested in the children and Africa. In my opinion, it is a huge accomplishment that besides the crowd of keen attendees, we managed to collect a substantial amount of donations that we will expend on the kiddos in Bura.

The event was opened by France Mutombo, of Congolese origin, followed by the captivating tribal dance performance of a Senegal artist, Abdoul Camara. Besides the various roundtable discussions, accounts of adventure, musical and dance programs, we had the opportunity to attend Lili Fülöp’s lecture on the Kenyan Orphanage’s everyday life, about the human-oriented experiences and difficulties; we had a chance to get to know the little ones and the bigger ones, their everyday habits and the community from pictures. Lili was very interesting to listen to; after all, I also have a trip to Kenya in mind. Besides all these, I also tried to participate in most of the programs, testing the Gidi2U foods, and taking up the pace with the dancers of the Malembe Afro Dance Hungary at the InToTo booth:).

Summing it up, I had a very good time, and I recommend these occasions to everyone who wants to familiarize themselves with the activities of the different foundations, or just explore an authentic African feeling. I spent the whole day there, from opening to closing time, since there were so many exciting things that I wanted to explore as many programs as possible. These various African events are the best occasions to bring Hungarian people closer to the culture of the “third world” or, if nothing else, the African community living here.