Local services
AFS is one of the oldest student exchange organisations in the world. They are also present in Debrecen, and Katalin Tóthné Timár, a kindergarten teacher, has been the president of the local district since 1997.
She recently received a huge recognition, the Galatti Award, which is a lifetime achievement award, a recognition from AFS International, and only three people in the entire world have received it.
Established in 1983, the AFS Galatti Award is presented in honour of Stephen Galatti, who served as AFS’s Executive Director for more than 28 years (1936-1964) and who shaped AFS into a worldwide organisation that promotes peace and global awareness through intercultural learning experiences.
The award also includes money, which the recipient will offer as a scholarship, so a young person from Debrecen will have the opportunity to experience an intercultural program in the country of their choice.
A few years ago, Dehir wrote about the work of Katalin Tóthné Timár in the organisation, who has had many students visit her thanks to the program. Her guests have come from countries like Costa Rica, Paraguay, Italy, Colombia, and even Belgium.
Hungary joined the world organisation in 1990, and since then, thousands of Hungarian students have spent a year abroad, and thousands of families have joined the work.
The activities of the organisation operating in Debrecen are not only outstanding in terms of domestic relations, and Katalin Tóthné Timár plays a big role in this. As she told Dehir earlier,
“My child wanted to go abroad during his high school years. That’s how we found AFS, and that’s how my eldest son ended up in Italy, where he was loved and raised by his host family for a year. So I thought about what I could give in return. I offered my help to AFS. They said we should create an AFS district so that we could also accept foreign students and the children of Debrecen could also get to other countries more easily.
After all, Debrecen is a school city, so we are very good subjects of this program. At first, the good news about the program spread by word of mouth. More and more people got involved, we have an extraordinary number of teachers and volunteers with large families, today we are consciously building our district.”
As stated in the AFS citation, during her 27 years of service, Mrs. Tóthné Katalin Timár personally supported the travel of approximately 350 Hungarian students and hosted more than 400 incoming students, thereby impacting the lives of hundreds of people,not only the young people but also the host families.
Source and photo credit:dehir.hu
