Record Number of Children to Join the State-Run Elizabeth Camps

A record number of 110,000 people will spend time at the Elizabeth Camps this year, including 50,000 who will attend during the summer months, the Minister of Culture and Innovation emphasized at a press conference held on Monday at the Erzsébet camp in Zánka (northern shore of Lake Balaton).

Balázs Hankó said that participants in the Elizabeth Camps can relax at five campsites. The largest is in Zánka, where 3,000 campers can stay at a time, while Fonyódliget (south) has 600-800 campers. In addition, there are camps in Zalaszabar (at Kis-Balaton, west of Lake Balaton) and ÁGOTA Falva in southern Hungary, as well as in Transylvania (Romania).

The Elizabeth Camps provide summer camping opportunities for all Hungarians throughout the Carpathian Basin,

the minister emphasized. He recalled that last year, 85,000 people participated in the overnight camps, 42,000 of them in the summer.

He added that this year, 4,000 young people from abroad are camping at Lake Balaton, and students from the mother country are also going to the camp in Transylvania.

This year, the government is supporting the camps with nearly 10 billion forints (25 million euros), and renovations in recent years have been carried out with 38 billion forints (95 million euros), meaning that the Elizabeth Camps are the largest government-supported camps in Europe,

he emphasized.

The summer camps run from Sunday to Friday, with young people from 577 institutions, schools, and academies in 458 towns taking part. Families can relax in Zánka from Friday to Sunday. Thanks to government support, participants can camp for a symbolic fee of 1,000 forints (2,50 euros). There are a hundred programs in Zánka and sixty in Fonyódliget, organized under five themes: sports, local history, science, culture, and Christianity. The minister also mentioned a new feature debuting this year: participants can take part in a career orientation camp program courtesy of vocational training centers. In addition, for the first time this year, campers will have the opportunity to travel on the electric-powered St. Elizabeth boat.

Fact

The Elizabeth Program was set up by the Hungarian government in 2012 to implement programs related to social services, such as the Elizabeth Camps scheme. The program provides discounted holidays under a social holiday scheme, with a particular focus on supporting large families, people with disabilities and pensioners who would not otherwise be able to afford them.

The Elizabeth Camps are available not only in summer but all year round for families in need. Thanks to the program, children can participate in sleep-away camps, family camps, and during the summer day-care camps.

Government Offers Europe’s Largest State-run Summer Camps for Families in Need