Foreign Affairs Committee of the Student Self-Government of the University of Debrecen and Erasmus Student Network both responded to the call of SocialErasmus Week, held between November 7 and 13, focusing on a number of various social and health issues as well as aspects of corporate social responsibility and mutual assistance.
“Our objective was to sensitize both the Hungarian and the international students to topical issues, so that they would feel the urge to do something together about social causes in Hungary, to call people’s attention to various problems, and to help those in need,” said Réka Jakab, President of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Student Self-Government of the University of Debrecen and Erasmus Student Network Debrecen, shortlisting the buzzwords of the event
“Every drop counts” was the motto for the opening day, when students were encouraged to donate blood in Building III of the dormitory complex Kossuth Lajos Kollégiumok. As many as three individual lives may be saved through this very simple activity that does not take longer than ten to fifteen minutes. Employees of Debrecen Regional Blood Bank Center, together with the team of organizers, were happy to express their gratitude to thirty foreign students for their participation in this voluntary venture.
The next stage in the series of events was a Movember Mustache Party held on November 9. Through this special bash, the hosts and the participants wished to raise awareness of men’s health problems and of how, with the help of regular screening tests taken in due course, prostate cancer can be diagnosed and successfully treated. Apart from distributing fake paper mustaches to the party-goers, the organizers also put a #SupportMovember board on display, next to which all the “party animals” could take pictures and selfies in order to support the campaign.
For closing the SocialErasmus Week sequence of events, a female student from Kazakhstan and a male student from Nigeria were taken by the organizers to pay a visit to 7th-grade pupils of Hungarian-English Bilingual Grade School and Basic-Level Art-Instruction Institution named after János Arany in nearby Ebes, where they briefly introduced themselves and talked about their respective countries and national cultures.
“The chief objective through this encounter was to make it possible for kids to meet people from other cultures as early as possible and to prevent the spread of unjustifiable prejudices among them,” said Krisztián Bódi, a member of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Student Self-Government of the University of Debrecen, one of the program organizers.
“Benned is rejtőzik valahol egy hős / próbáld ki, te vagy a felelős” [There is a hero hidden somewhere in you, too / try find it, as it’s your responsibility], runs the lyrics in one of the popular songs by the Hungarian band Punnany Massif. The participants in the series of activities arranged during the course of SocialErasmus Week have surely found the hero / heroine in themselves already, who is willing, and also knows how and when, to help their fellow human beings, thanks to the eye-opening events in the program series. Don’t you want to be the next everyday hero in line?
DEHDK PR and Press Office
