This programme of HCAF focuses on elderly care in Europe in the framework of the care crisis. Our work is based on first-hand experience as live-in carers since 2015 in the UK, and as a carer and family-support grass-root initiative since 2017.
We strongly believe that the European care crisis MUST be tackled on the European level and not only on national levels. At the moment there is a conflict of interest among “sending” and “receiving” countries within the EU member states in terms of carers and care migration. However, there is great potential in solving the problem by utilizing the existing diversity among the member states. We focus on this diversity, explore and utilize the cooperation opportunities and synergies emerging within the EU and its member states.
Focus areas:
Grass-root level
We support carers and families, mostly in Hungary with information, trainings, workshops. In 2023 the programme has 14.500+ members. More info about the programme in Hungarian here.
We also do networking and ecosystem development of CEE care migrants, working in Western-European countries.
Research
We work together with universities, other NGOs and businesses to carry out theoretical and also applied research in the field of elderly care and care migration in Europe.
Advocacy
We work together with other NGOs, advocacy-related initiatives, grassroots initiatives and Municipalities to promote better care and better economic and social circumstances and structures in an ageing Europe.
One of our most precious projects is the JANOSHIDA2030 project, in which Janoshida Municipality and HCAF are working together in a strategic cooperation. The focus is to transform the village into a care and permaculture-based modern European village. More info about this is here.
OsmosisCare.Net the online community and learning platform
This is a pilot project in which an online community platform has been created. The platform serves as an online space for stakeholders to learn, communicate, connect with one another. On the long run, it will be a site to support quality assurance activities for carers and families. It will also serve as a platform to support the active ageing and mental health of ageing individuals and especially those who are paid or unpaid carers, care providers.
Publications and contributions
“Challenges facing Hungarian care workers when trying to act for themselves in the United Kingdom and in Hungary” in Volume: Towards a scarcity of care? Tensions and contradictions in transnational elderly care systems in central and eastern Europe, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2020 http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/budapest/16945.pdf
The vulnerability of paid migrant live-in care workers in London to modern slavery, University of Nottingham, 2022 https://www.labourexploitation.org/sites/default/files/publications/web%200822_GW_4529310_Rights_Lab_Care_report_IPC%20and%20TfL_v7%20cite.pdf
Undocumented Migrant Women in Europe: A Neglected Chapter in Fundamental Rights, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2022 https://www.trust.org/publications/i/?id=c426fa8c-0c37-4db9-a738-f7aa59c5d1de
Facing COVID-19: Live-in Care in Central Europe, Global Dialogue, 2020, https://globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/articles/facing-covid-19-live-in-care-in-central-europe
In Hungarian: „Situation of domestic elderly care in Hungary”
Az otthoni idősgondozás helyzete Magyarországon, Új Egyenlőség, 2020 https://ujegyenloseg.hu/az-otthoni-idosgondozas-helyzete-magyarorszagon/
In Hungarian: „When everything has been said about elderly care: without self-organising, it is not going to work”
Amikor már mindent elmondtunk az idősgondozásról: önszerveződés nélkül nem fog menni, Mérce, 2020 https://merce.hu/2020/06/23/amikor-mar-mindent-elmondtunk-az-idosgondozasrol-onszervezodes-nelkul-nem-fog-menni/
Hekate 