Judit Berki

I was a high achiever at primary school and I was given a grant so I can attend a secondary school preparatory course. It wasn’t a huge amount of money but came in very handy for us back then. I completed a year long prep course and I was offered a seat at Madach Secondary School. And you know what, there were only two gipsies int he class of 42, István Kunsági and I? I believe that I was given all sorts of extra bonuses there, which proved very useful later on. I became part of a very good community. And whether you were a gipsy or not was completely irrelevant. […] I think that your schooling is rather formative for your life. The kind of classmates and teachers you have. What you are regarded as by them. […] And my classmates came to visit us. They loved my granny’s bread and butter as well as her apples. No one said that ’I just won’t come to your place’. And I also went to see the Jancsó’s. So I was an integral part of the community of classmates. I see that nowadays a part of kids get completely excluded from these opportunities. Wealthy families are so self-contained nowadays that they are inaccessible. As an advocate of integrated education I’m convinced that the most efficient way of learning is learning and picking up things from your peers. I got registered in Ervin Szabó Library and checked out lots of books regularly. I also made a list of what I’d like to get from the second hand bookstore, there was no way of affording brand new books. But I always made a list of what I’d like to get for my birthday of Christmas and I always did get them. I was an ardent reader. But it was maybe due to my peer group being ardent readers themselves. We came to that school to learn, to get knowledgeable and to be able to help each other. And this is the ability that I managed to maintain. And it has top priority in my life, too.

– I applied for a HomeLodging Manager post. That’s how I came to live in Kisterenye. I worked as a manager here for quite a while. And back then it was up to me to decide who I wanted to work with. It was great and I managed to set up a nice little team. And we assisted a lot of kids in flying the nest. – What exactly is HomeLodging? What’s the set up? – There were fifteen kids in this particular HomeLodging. I was the manager and I had staff working for me. It was a round the clock duty. – So these kids actually lived there, didn’t they? – Yes. Just like the kids who live in this house. This is where they go to school from, this is where meals are cooked for them, they do live here. The educational rationale was to teach them all the skills that they will need to be able to look after themselves when they move out from there. This is essential as in the large children’s home everything was provided for them. The point here was to teach them to live independently. You had to assist them with their studies, you check what they are doing and help them pick their clothes. Basically, you take care of them as a mother would. Back then we regarded it as a rather progressive thing. And that’s what it was! I remember people collecting signitures to prevent kids from state children’s homes from moving in, these children are not wanted there, they are gonna be up to all sorts of things. In actual fact, kids weren’t up to any mischief and they managed to get involved in all sorts of projects […] In the children’s home children were grouped according to age. Even if they were siblings. In homelogings brothers and sisters moved in together, which was of huge importance but emotionally straining, too. […] Then finally everyone calmed down, procedures got established and things were taking shape. Eventually, I was the manager of this house for seven years.