JANUARY
We began the year with the traditional New Year’s Eve party, which was organized at Blue Pearl restaurant with 70 participants.
The theme of the January radio program – Harmony – was: Everyday heroes wanted, a report about our Good Face Campaign. Our guests were: Emőke Simon, Judit Gyöngyi Simon and Dóra Aczél (through the phone), the main organizer of Yuppi Camp.
FEBRUARY
The Carnival took place at Blue Pearl Restaurant on February 6. Participants arrived from different counties. The dance group of our association – BB DANCE – started its rehearsals in February. At first the rehearsals took place at Deus Providebit Educational Centre, then at Sapientia University in Corunca/Tg.-Mures, as the light and space conditions proved to be more appropriate. The motto of our radio program in February was: My friends, my community. This was the motto of World Down Syndrome Day as well. Our guests were: Rozália Májer, Annamária György and Ildikó Balogh.
MARCH
In March we had a spiritual day on the occasion of Lent, when we made preparations for Easter. With the aid of Radio Tg-Mureş, we organized an awareness-raising campaign entitled Stupidity is not a disability. Two HIFA ROMANIA members attended the event, both having a driver’s license.
The topic of the Harmony radio program was: How to obtain a driver’s license, discussing traffic problems, car driving for people with disabilities, and parking possibilities. Our guests were: Júlia Györfi, Attila Kelemen, Attila Márton-Zolyomi Csaba.
APRIL
We attended an NGO Suppliers’ Fair organized by the Caritas Foundation in Blaj on April 6. We presented the activities, projects and future plans of our association.
At the end of April, on the occasion of the “Doing School Differently” week, we visited three schools. The theme of our interactive program was: How to live with disability? On the first day we worked with 120 kindergarten and primary school pupils in Corunca; the second day we visited the school in Hodoşa village; on the third day we had activities with primary school pupils in Sâncraiu de Mureş. The theme of our radio program was: Plans and programs of HIFA ROMANIA Association in 2016. Co-organizer: Judit Gyöngyi Simon.
MAY
In May we participated at the Civil Society Organizations Fair where we exhibited handmade ornaments and presented our publications. We also gathered for a Pentecostal spiritual dayt. At the end of the month our dance company – BB DANCE – had its first performance, Wheels Dance – First Steps. Despite the bad weather, around 300 people attended the show.
Towards the end of the month we participated at the Swimathon charitable contest with two social projects. With the aid of our sponsors we obtained a larger sum of money than expected, thus we managed to renovate an old house inherited from one of our members and to make it accessible.
The second project was a trip with bathing possibilities for the disabled and chronically ill people.
The theme of this month’s Harmony radio program was the presentation of our BB DANCE Group and their first show: First steps. Guests: Mónika Király, Katalin Somodi dance instructor and choreographer, Zsolt Graur, dancer. Other members of the dance group were engaged in the dialogue through the phone.
JUNE
On June 3 we took part in the Zoot’s Dream Nightt event, when our disabled members were offered a presentation and they could have a walk at the Zoo. As in the previous years, we also visited the Mures Fly show.
We organized a Fraternitas spiritual day on June 18 and an exhibition entitled The Name of God Is Mercy.
We had a Sports Day in the Town Park on June 25.
The guests of our radio program were Zsuzsanna Magyarosi and her mother, who told us about their trip to Szeged and their exhibition.
JULY
On July 2 we started the month with an open-air Fraternitas spiritual day attended by 19 members. On July 9 we organized our second Sports Day, when we aimed at popularizing darts, archery and table tennis for the disabled people. The participants had the possibility to learn and practise these sports. In the middle of the month we launched our program Online Art Camp: Taste of Life. Our purpose was to invite disabled and chronically ill people to a creation camp. The exhibition lasted for a week (August 20–29). The events related to this camp took place on August 25. On July 16 we had our spiritual day and the BB DANCE company performed their show in Voivodeni during Village Days on July 16, enjoying an incredible success. The 17th Fraternitas Camp gathered 60 participants at Baile Selters, Romania between July 25–29. The guests of our radio program were Attila Márton Zolyomi and Júlia Györfi, who discussed various administrative and legal problems with call-ins.
AUGUST
We began our activities with discussions and arrangements for the various events taking place during the month. We posted the works of the Online Creation Camp – Hidden Pearls on the Association’s facebook page. The visitors could vote until August 19. We also exhibited the works at Deus Providebit Educational Centre. The three members of the jury awarded the displayed works. Until August 28 the exhibition was supervised by our disabled members offering the visitors the possibility to talk to them about their lifestyle, the event and the exhibited works.
During this period, the International Fraternity Meeting took place in Cluj-Napoca, our Association being one of the main organizers of the event. The participants visited Tg- Mures on August 25, when we presented a whole-day cultural program for them.
In the morning the guests from abroad were shown the important town buildings by the famous primary school teacher, Ilona Bárdosi. At noon we attended the Roman Catholic mass at the Saint John the Baptist Church (celebrated by Imre Balla together with guest priests from abroad). Then we listened to the reflections of the Reformed priest, István Szabó. The cultural programs continued after lunch, starting at 3 o’clock:
folk dances performed by Bekecs Folk Ensemble, followed by reciting poems, singing songs, rewards of the Online Creation Camp and the Summer Festival with disabled singers and musicians. The BB DANCE company performed a show in the town center at 6 p.m.
On Saturday, August 27, we had a whole day event entitled, Let’s learn differently! Interactive Islandst, embedded in the Whirl in Tg-Mures (Vásárhelyi Forgatag) program, in the Town Park. On Sunday, within the same program we presented our association’s book entitled Images of Life (Életképek).
