Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Istenkút is situated in the north-western corner of Pécs (a city in the Southern-Transdanubian region of
Hungary), up to Mecsek mountains presently with 1500 inhabitants. The routs of five parallel valleys on a
small water catchment basin and the separating mountain ridges meet at Istenkút spring, which is in the
centre of the area and near the building of a school that was founded in 1925. The territory having more
and more inhabitants used to be a hillside of vineyards of Magyarürög, an area which later joined Pécs.
The designation 'Istenkút' is the unofficial geographical name of the territory, however first it was used
for the school near the spring abounding in water in the centre of the area otherwise with little water; later
it designated the whole area as well.
THE CRISIS
The outcomes of the political transition of 1989 reached Istenkút in 1995 on the level of the community
experience. Up to that time a great number of working places had been closed down, which restricted
people's activity to the range of their private problems. However, the planned closure of the local school
awoke latent solidarity. (It was noticeable that people's protest against the planned closure of local schools
were remarkably more organised throughout Hungary than the protests against discharges.) Among the
values of this community the first is children's safety and future: local people of Istenkút reacted very
combatively on hearing the intention of the City Government to close down the school. They used, tried
and learned all the democratic means1 to represent and enforce their own interests, and in this fight they
managed to make use of all the strategic and procedural mistakes the City Government made, which, at
that time, was still inexperienced in such situations and constitutionalism in general.
The closure of the school violated children's rights, and overburdened the families. First of all large
families with 3 or more children suffered from the preclusive measures – no wonder that the leaders of
the movement were from these families. The unilateral measures of the legitimate power seemed to make
an unrecoverable blow on community identity. City leaders did not identify these as a consequences of
their decision. In their eyes, the whole problem appeared as an irrationally exaggerative opposition.
1
Negotiation, declaration of standpoint, statement, presence at commitee and public meetings, school council, collecting
signatures, press release, petition, cooperation and common action with trade unions, oppositional parties, protectors of other
schools that were about to be closed down, public initiation, Lord Mayor’s veto, petition for legal remedy addressed to
Közigazgatási Hivatal (Office of legal Administration), Ombudsman, ceaseless presence int he media, elaboration of
alternatives, what is more, in certain cases, misleading, libel, defamation.
2
Istenkút 2000- a complex civil programme for community development and regional development to reactivate local people
who were fed up with the past useless strougle. Its aim: activation of cooperative potential not for opposition, but for actions
crutial concerning the future of the area and itsinhabitants. Sponzors: DemNet USAID, Phare Democracy Program
community's activities.3
The first essential and widely known breakthrough happened in the summer of 2000 when, celebrating
the millennium, a mystery play was put on stage under the title The Spring: the play from the legend
about the name of 'Istenkút' (God's spring or God's well) was written by one of the community members.
Kids and adults were working together on the performance. The open-air, musical performance on the
hills behind the school building, which, as an unburied corpse, was empty that time, had consequences
both within the community and as a theatre performance. All the efforts made to put on stage the story
from the age of the Tartar invasion communicated that following the dangers and threats Istenkút is the
source of a new life for the surviving community.
SUMMARY
Personal involvement is a prerequisite for active citizenship. It is about our own life. It is not a simple
school affair, it is an affair of our own school, our own dwelling place, our partners, our city, our city
government, and yes, our association through which local community life could be renewed and given a
new quality. The interpersonal relationships among people living in Istenkút and their awareness as
citizens are surely deeper than usual. This is the most important result of the community development
work in Istenkút which was initiated from within. In periods of crisis these appear as basic conditions of
the whole internally motivated process.
The school evidently could not be replaced, but the Istenkút Community Association established a
multifunctional institution (Szieberth-KAPTÁR Istenkúti Közösségi Ház – Szieberth Hive, Istenkút
Community House) in the building of the former culture centre of the city government, and made a mid-
run agreement with them.
As a result of the enthusiastic and at the same time conscious developmental work and the voluntary
impulse springing from inner devotion, a communal institution was founded with a wide range of
activities, information centre, for employment, social welfare, youth, cultural and family problems, which
is weekly used by about 100-150 people, but on special occasions 150-200 people may participate.
The local association has a well trained, professional management accepted even by the City Government
as a negotiating partner.
If we look back upon the Istenkút story, not from the perspective of the school (in which case we may
speak about mere failure, serious defeat), but from the perspective of the liberation and use of community
resources of a clear-cut district, we may speak about success. What does this success lie in? Something
expressible in figures today, a few years ago was still quite obvious and natural. When there was a school,
a hundred families contacted with each other every day. Yet, there is a basic difference: when the
children's parents contacted with each other, their meeting was due to the an educational institution, and
there was always some air of compulsion in the celebrations and programmes organized by the school.
Such an institution under the authority of the City Government is obviously exposed to external sources –
the proof of it is the closure of the school (for instance even the donated equipment's entered the stocklist
of the City Government, and as such could be taken away).
After the closure of the school the action launched to build a new community went back to its traditions
(reasonable handling of conflicts based on former experiences), on the other hand the voluntary nature of
activities had a new essential role, also the awoken needs and intention, an own internal, undepriveable
positive attitude which – together with pride coming from previous injuries – conveys the joy of
independence.
CONTACT:
Association for the Community of Istenkút
7635 Pécs, Fábián Béla u. 7. Tel./fax: (0036) 72/510-305, 510-306
E-mail: istenkut@galamb.net
3
Due to a contract of loan for use, the organization got hold of an office in the sidebuilding of the school.