Útilapu Hálózat - Service Civil International Hungary

Útilapu Nemzetközi Építőtábor Hálózat (Útilapu Hálózat) is the Hungarian branch of Service Civil International (SCI), an international humanitarian movement existing since 1920. SCI organises and coordinates voluntary projects in over 50 European, Asian, American and African countries. Its primary activity is organising international short term voluntary projects, like summer camps and youth exchanges all over the world. It promotes active citizenship, supports local communities, involves people to take an active role in the society in which they are living by participating. The organisation educates the participating young volunteers about peace, intercultural understanding, solidarity by practising it in nonformal ways. In Hungary, the organization is based on the voluntary work of young people. There are several self coordinated Working Groups that have regular meetings.

The Camp Coordination Working Group of Útilapu organizes regular project coordinator trainings and meetings, and about 10 short term summer projects per year for foreign and Hungarian volunteers. Besides, Útilapu places around 120 Hungarian applicants per year in foreign voluntary camps. The camps are formed by usually about 10 to 20 people of different nationalities who do voluntary work together, mostly between two weeks and a month. The work in these projects is diverse, includes environmental work, renovation, working with children, disabled, disadvantaged and refugees, preparing cultural events and art festivals, peace and antiracist actions, organising enlightening and information campaigns.

The Youth and Unemployment Working Group (YUWG) coordinates regular workshops, youth events, exchanges for children with fewer opportunities. Several volunteers go on a weekly basis to tutor subjects like Math, English and Technology in children‟ s homes from September to May. Moreover, they also hold art craft workshops every second month or simply celebrate holidays with the kids or remember together about folk traditions.

The office staff and the Creative Working Groups are responsible for the involvement and management of volunteers and the information of interested youth. It includes attending, organizing and doing marketing for events and small projects, like intercultural events, movie nights, Day of Earth, etc.

There are also International Exchange and EVS Working Groups. As volunteerism is our main means, we have been sending and hosting EVS volunteers for several years since before we joined the European Union, and we have gained lots of skills and competences throughout our guest volunteers as well as the returning ones. Due to this we see an outstanding opportunity in EVS and we hope this project will have a great contribution to our work.

As for the other activities, Útilapu focuses on all dimension of non-formal education. The Peace Messenger Working Group is responsible for the trainings, events, and development of materials connected to peace, anti-discrimination, Human Rights education.