Nyilas Misi Talent Support Association

The social grant programme of our Association was established in 2003, at the initiative of Mr. János Péntek and Ms. Katalin É. Kiss. In the first year, the applications and the allowances were managed in Cluj-Napoca by the Foundation for School (Iskola Alapítvány), under the direction of Mr. József Somai. In Budapest, our programme was originally supported by the Hungarian Baptist Aid through the advocacy of Ms. Katalin É. Kiss – they kept the record of sponsors, as well as received and relayed their contributions. With the establishment in 2004 of the Nyilas Misi Talent Support Association, headquartered in Cluj-Napoca, the programme became institutionalised. Since 2008 the Association is also registered as a foundation in Hungary.

Within our core programme, the Talent Support Programme, we support talented pupils coming from socially underprivileged families. Allowances can be granted starting with the 8th grade, and if the academic results of the pupil do not fall back and the financial situation of the family justifies it, the allowance is paid out to the pupil without the need for repeated applications until high-school graduation. A prerequisite for the grant is to study in Hungarian language, but no other criteria — such as ethnicity or religious affiliation — are applied to differentiate our grant recipients. Our core programme encompasses the whole of Transylvania, as well as Csángó pupils from Moldova who study in Hungarian language.

The Friendship Programme is aimed towards our former grant recipients whose sponsors insisted on supporting them further. Therefore the recipients of these grants are mainly university/college students.

Our Talent Point

In 2009 we joined the Talent Point network of the national Talent Support Council. Within this network we expanded our activity with workshop activities, personality development camps and teacher trainings geared towards talent development. Based on the decision of the Accreditation Committee entrusted by the Federation of Hungarian Talent Support Organisations, our Association became an Accredited Excellent Talent Point.

Since 2011 we organize an annual Talent Day, where our grant recipients with outstanding academic achievements and extracurricular activities have an opportunity to showcase their achievements.

Our grant programmes are based on a large number of individual sponsors. In the past ten years we have granted on average 350 allowances each year, with the contribution of about 600 sponsors per year. In the past decade our Association has paid out more than 340 Million Forints to 974 pupils. Most of them have been our grant recipients for a period of 4–5 years, but there are a few students to whom we have been granting the allowance for 10 years. 450 of our grant recipients have successfully graduated from high-school, most of them continuing their studies as university students.

The basic allowance of one pupil is usually ensured through the contribution of two sponsors with a monthly payment of 5,000 Forints, 20 Euros or the equivalent each. It is also possible for one sponsor to cover the monthly allowance of a pupil (10 thousand Forints / 40 Euros per month), or even of several pupils.

The amount of the allowance has been determined at the start of the Programme, 10 years ago. However, tuition costs have doubled over the years, therefore we believe it is justified to increase the allowance granted to those pupils who have excellent school records and who need it the most. The higher allowance amounts have been introduced as of January 2013. This allowance, amounting to 15,000 Forints / 60 Euros, can also be covered by two sponsors (each contributing half of the amount), but it is also possible for one sponsor to contribute the entire amount, or even to cover the higher allowance amount for several children.