Ilona Varga

Ilona Varga (born April 1960 in Háromfa , Somogy County ) is a Hungarian journalist , translator and editor of a dictionary .

Life

Origin and education

Ilona Varga was born in Háromfa, a gypsy settlement in Baranya County that was then dissolved. The birth certificate was issued on April 11th in the nearby village of Kemese . She spent her childhood in Zaláta . Until she was 6 years old, she only spoke beash , the language of the local Roma . After primary school, she attended grammar school in Pécs . After that, she married and started a family. Varga also worked as an administrator, kitchen maid and accountant in a glove factory when she was studying Hungarian at the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Pécs . After graduating from college, she taught in the dormitory of a Pécs special school for six years .

In 1989 she was signed to Magyar Rádió ("Hungarian Radio"), where she worked in the first editorial team of the Cigányfélóra ("Gypsy Half-Lesson"). In the first television program for Roma, which was produced in the Pécsi Körzeti Stúdió des Magyar Televízió , she was the presenter of the program Figyelj rám! (beash: Bágăm Számá! - Asun Kathe!, German: “Notice me!”). In 1991 she completed her training at the MÚOSZ Bálint György Újságíró Akadémia (" György Bálint Journalist Academy"). She later received diplomas in media and sociology from Lorand Eötvös University .

Commitment and professional career

Varga is the initiator of the Gandhi Alapítvány ("Gandhi Foundation "), which set up Europe's first Roma grammar school , the Gandhi grammar school in Pécs. She is also the curator of the following foundations and institutions that protect and promote the Roma:

• Gandhi Közalapítvány ("Gandhi Community Foundation ")
• Magyarországi Cigányokért Közalapítvány ("Hungarian Community Foundation for Gypsy Aid ")
• Fészek Alapítvány ("Nest Foundation") of the state child welfare , which provides assistance with adoptions
• Kisebbségi Jogvédő Iroda ("Legal Protection Office for Minorities")

She is also a member of the board of Filantróp Társaság (" Philanthropic Society") and head of the Tegnapután Országos Cigány Kulturális Egyesület ("National Cultural Association Day after Yesterday ")

In 1999 she became the editor in charge of Cigány Magazin ("Gypsy Magazine of Hungarian Television "). There she was also a reporter for the portrait series Sorsfordítók (“ Turns of Fate”). For several years she was the program director of the charitable Roma programs Szálkák (“Splitter”) and Segíthetek? (“Can I help?”) At the Petőfi Rádió .

Also worth mentioning is the radio program Kórterem ("Period"), which deals with both the extradition of patients and the use of doctors in hospitals. The situation of street musicians was also discussed. Another project is a show made by the blind . Varga also designed a program at the Kossuth Rádió that deals with various disadvantaged social classes.

In 1996, Varga achieved that the Beash language at Idegennyelvi Továbbképző és Vizsgaközpont ("Training and Examination Center for Foreign Languages") was included in the state examination catalog of languages. Since then, Beash skills have been recognized as language skills. In the same year, she took the exam in her mother tongue at the institution mentioned. She is also the editor of the first Beash Hungarian dictionary, which contains around 10,000 entries.

Ilona Varga is also the country's first Beash interpreter . When she found out that gypsies who do not have a sufficient command of the Hungarian language have the right to ask for a translator in court , but that there were practically no interpreters at the level of native speakers, she passed the interpreting test.

Her translations and interviews appear regularly in various magazines, for example in Világunk ("Our World"), Barátság ("Friendship") and Lungo Drom . She was also involved in creating a basic Roma culture curriculum .

Prices

In 1998 she received the Union Chamber Hungary Prize for her work , which Kennedy and Kissinger also received at a young age. She also won the Magyar Rádió's Nívódíj (“Level Prize”) twice and the Tolerancia Díj (“Tolerance Prize”), as well as the Pro Humanitas Díj (“Pro Humanitas Prize”) once . In March 2003 she was awarded the Táncsics Mihály-díj ("Mihály Táncsics Prize") and in 2006 with the Kisebbségekért Díj ("Prize for Minorities"). A year later she received the Jó Ember Díj (“Good Man Award”).

Works

• Mese a telepről ("Fairy tale about the settlement")
• Gyökerek ("roots")
• A cigány közösség hatása a tanuló a tanulóra
• Motiváció
• Személyiségfejlesztés ("Personality Development ")
• Életük egyfajta bizonyítás ("A kind of proof of our life")
• Válogatás magyar szerzők cigány tárgyú írásaiból ("Selection of writings by Hungarian authors dealing with Gypsy subjects")
• Válogatás a világirodalom cigány tárgyú írásaiból ("Selection of writings from world literature dealing with Gypsy subjects")
• Beás-magyar / Magyar-beás szótár ("Dictionary Beash-Hungarian / Hungarian-Beás")
• Kik is a cigányok? ("Who are these gypsies?")
• Válogatás a kortárs cigány irodalom alkotóinak írásaiból ("Selection of writings from contemporary gypsy literature")
• Hanglenyomatok ("mood depressor ")

Note: The German titles in brackets are freely translated and are not titles of German versions of Ilona Varga's works.

literature

• Csikesz, Tamás (Ed.): Ki Kicsoda? DFT-Hungária, Budapest 2006 (Hungarian, Hungarian “Who's Who”).
• Csépányi Katalin (Ed.): Hetedhéthatár . Közérdekű magazine. No. 6 . Héthatár Bt., Pécs 2007 (Hungarian).

Hegedűs, Sándor: Cigány irodalmi kislexikon . Konsept-H, Pilscsaba 2000, ISBN 963-8332-98-0 (Hungarian).

Web links

• Kosztolányi, Gusztáv: Radio Roma - Interview with Ilona Varga, editor-in-chief of Roma Half Hour . Central Europe Review, November 27, 2000, accessed November 26, 2008 .