Two American journalism students visited the RCH Refugee Ministry when it was housed at St. Columba’s Church of Scotland in March and documented their experiences in Budapest with refugees. They were excited by the church’s work with refugees and have included their time at St. Columba’s in their final semester projects.
Courtney Columbus and Cammeron Neely, American journalism students from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, visited the RCH’s Refugee Ministry in March 2016. At this time, the ministry was housed at St. Columba’s Scottish Mission, a Church of Scotland (CofS) congregation in Budapest that has dual affiliation with the RCH and the CofS and is heavily invested in the church’s work with refugees. The two students were interested in learning about refugee integration in Hungary after hearing so much about the topic from news outlets in the United States.
As part of a class trip, a group of students from the Cronkite School of Journalism visited Hungary to give the students an opportunity to delve into their chosen subject matter and do on-the-ground reporting. Columbus and Neely, excited by the church outreach with refugees, got in touch with the RCH and interviewed Dóra Kanizsai-Nagy, Head of the Refugee Ministry of RCH; Rev Aaron Stevens, current Minister at the Scottish Mission; as well as individual clients of the Refugee Ministry.
To read Courtney Columbus’ article, titled Integration is difficult for the few refugees granted asylum, click here. Her work includes a wonderfully written article, photographs taken by Neely, as well as audio clips from her interviews with people at St. Columba’s. The highlight of Cammeron Neely’s project, While refugee flows slow, their impact remains, is a video titled Refugees who enter Hungary face troubled integration, which can be seen here.
The RCH would like to applaud Courtney Columbus and Cammeron Neely for their dedication to this subject matter and the human touch that they captured in their projects.
Kearstin Bailey