Saturday evening I met the girls from MA. Sharn is leaving for America to work for Levi`s. Her granddad bears the wonderful Hungarian name Sandor and has a Hungarian origin. That always made Sharn a little special to me on the Hungarian side. She gave me some really good tips about the thesis in that noisy bar, where they don`t sell coca-cola . One of the things I found very difficult when we all started MA that I wasn`t able to socialise and get to know my classmates. I was working nearly 12 hours a day for 7 days and back in Hungary for 7 days. I couldn’t make any social gatherings. I loved Anna-Maria`s knitting tea afternoon`s, though to which I made special effort to go. We all set around in their Hackney living room knitting away squares with one hole and button on a specific side for her project. I loved her idea about buttoned together jumpers. I hope she sells in the shop they opened in Dalston (http://heretoday-heretomorrow.com/).
There was always some lovely nibble and old fashioned pots of teas in tea cosies. I remember there was a Feisty-Green-Girl working on a project educating local residents on energy saving. I found her job very interesting and asked a lot of questions. She enthusiastically told me all about it. I was telling someone about my lovely Alpha buddy Bremley, who founded a rubber tree plantation in his native India and organises Carbon Neutral Dances where you can dance away your carbon footprints i.e. your entrance ticket buys a rubber tree which produces more oxygen than other trees in its life time. The Feisty-Green-Girl overhearing the term of dancing away your carbon footprint turned to me and gave me a lecture, that that is not possible and she knows that because she knows what she is talking about. `You cannot dance of your carbon footprint that is stupid` she told me.
`Are you Spanish`, I asked?
`Yes`. She said.
`I thought so.`
She had no intention to listen what I had to say just branded it as nonsense. She did give the I-am-right-and-you-are-wrong-look the rest of the evening.
I am so glad Bremley re-launches his Carbon Neutral Dances this autumn and carries on saving the planet and the people. He is like a `modern day hero with a compassionate heart and a passion for justice`. He is the biggest networkers I`ve met, he introduces people from all over the world. He got me into the Ugandan Embassy in 2007 to hear Tom Sanderson talking about 5Talents` work in Uganda. I remember Bremley asking me at the end if I had talked to Tom yet? I was still pulling myself together after hearing all the awesome microfinance success the organisation has achieved and was trying to memorise my question. I think I was a little bit nervous back then.
I did visit the 5Talents office in Croydon and interviewed` Tom` for MA research. (http://www.fivetalents.org/) I was interested how it would be possible to help artisans with micro finance in Hungary. And wanted to know the successful structure they work with. Through churches. And they lend small amounts of money raised in the UK to a group of women who start their own business to earn money and feed their families. Some may buy cows, others land to produce crops and sell it. My first concerns about Hungary were: churches growth has been put on hold and declined during the Communism and team work has also considerably suffered under the all-equal-regime.
After that interview I started to research microfinance in Hungary and found out only those SME`s can apply for microfinance, who has been registered for more than a year and have so and so much turnover. Artisans also have to be registered more than a year. I`ve heard that from one the case studies I interviewed in Hungary. It was like reading a socio-realistic-classic novel when I`ve heard her story: she was trained as a ceramic painter and had her first job in a famous ceramic factory in Hungary. Later on she was made redundant due to downsizing, but fell in love couple of years later had a baby and was left to become a single mum. One day she was given an opportunity to get a loan to buy a kiln. The same day she also was offered a job at the local care home. To buy the kiln she was supposed to register as a necessity entrepreneur and pay the high monthly fees (national insurance, pension, tax) even before she made a single sale. As a responsible single mother she has chosen the care home assistant job. She has inspired me to look into the necessity-myth-of-necessity-entrepreonurship-versus-declining-artsians. My case study would have had more chance to get microfinance help in Africa than in Hungary. That tells us a lot about living in transition economy in the middle of Europe. I have spent months trying to look into ways of starting up her ceramic and painting business, but couldn`t find anything affordable.
Months later I went to see a basket weaver artisan at Bekes. Mrs. Kocsor had some pretty good suggestions. She was just wise, funny and friendly.
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