“This program has given me work”

Kázsmárk, Hungary

P. made stoves for the participants of Autonómia Foundation’s IDA-Housing program. P., his wife and their two daughters live together with his parents in Kázsmárk, because although he has a job as a logger at the local forestry company right now, his monthly pay is just HUF 58,000, which is not nearly enough for him to move to a new place with his family.

“Opportunities likes this don’t come around often” P. said about the program. He is a qualified stove maker but he cannot find work that fits this qualification anywhere in the vicinity and he does not have enough money to start his own business, so undertakes every odd job that comes up. “The program was very good for the families here because they could not have bought the stoves otherwise, and look at now the beautiful and warm stoves in their homes. And it gave me work. You know, it all began when Tibi came and said that there was this Autonómia Foundation” P. recalls. “And we agreed with the mayor that he would employ us as public workers for six hours a day during the program. Well, it would have been better if it had been eight hours, but it was still pretty good. And then we started working, we were given a small workshop that we had to clean out. We had to take out all the garbage, because, you know, the mayor’s office didn’t really believe in the whole thing and so they gave us trouble sometimes. But we cleaned the place out, we brought clay for the stoves, and although the mayor’s office promised tools, they didn’t give us any, so we had to use our own tools and borrow some. But all the stoves were made in the end! … and you know, the people had trust in the program, because they could see that we were always working in our workshop and they came in all the time to watch how their stoves were being made” says P. Speaking of the future, he adds “you know, those who did not participate, who were left out, are now really sorry. Towards the end, about 30 of them came to the workshop to ask us to make stoves for them. A man from Szalonna has just called me to ask how he could join the program. It would be great if we could continue the program because there’s a huge interest in it. Plus, finally I had to opportunity show what great stoves I could make!”

(IDA-Housing Programme founded by Open Society Institute and Levi Strauss Foundation)