In 2010, Finep, our German partner contacted us with an offer to join their unprecedented international program, that deals with global learning. They wanted to create a campaign to raise awareness regarding global issues, that is organized by non-governemental organizations and museums, reaching out to the visitors of museums.

The idea was based on the fact that in our partner countries: Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and in Hungary there is a wide scale of museums. The age of the visitors of museums vary from 0 to 99 years. As an NGO, our job is to introduce global issues, to raise awareness, and to exhort to action reaching more and more groups of people in society.

In 2000, 189 members of United Nations committed themselves to solving problems that are present in every country of the world until 2015. They drew up goals such as to alleviate extreme poverty, ensure environmental sustainability, reduce child mortality, and to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. After a successful tender, already existing materials were supplemented by interactive exhibitional materials that introduce the Millennium Development Goals with global targets.

One important sector of the international work of Hungarian Baptist Aid is social sensitizaion, the introduction of global context and problems that affect the whole world. As the Museo Mundial program allows unique methods, we could exhibit the objectives to the public in a way that fits to the profile of museums, and it is interesting for the visitors too. Within the program, we are going to establish a total of 10 supplementary exhibitions with our partners, the Railway Historical Park and the Budapest Historical Museum.

The Museo Mundial’s first Hungarian global installation was present in April at Railway Historical Park, that introduce the environmentally friendly Vectron locomotive as part of an interactive exhibition. The Vectron locomotive was chosen because its operation contributes to environmental sustainability. The visitors of Railway Historical Park can operate the model of environmentally friendly locomotive with their right answer:

The model of Vectron locomotive

The operation of Vectron’s model

At the same time, the exhibition of Budapest Historical Museum, called „Water drops in the desert”, was also opened. This exhibition raises the awareness of the fight against malaria, HIV, and other infectious diseases, the sustainability of the environment, and, within that, the lack of water fit for consumption. The installation is in two places, one is at the restroom of the museum where visitors are tuned to the topic by the exhibited water meters and awareness raising questions. The second part of installation is at Budapest Light and Shadow permanent exhibition, where Rudas Bath is presented. The visitors can deal with questions, such as the worldwide usage of water and the water consumption of households, by using various visual equipments.

There are three further locations where exhibitions can be visited. The one in the King’s Cellar presents the hygienic situation of the past centuries, there are two exhibitions in the Budapest Light and Shadow - the 1000 Years of Budapest, one that emphasizes the importance of the education of women and another promoting equality for women, and the last exhibition is housed at the permanent exhibition on ancient cultures and presents the topic of feeding infants in the bronze ages. These exhibitions are open for one year.

What is a bucket of water enough for?

How much water we consume during a handwash?

The program that is co-financed by the EU will end in 2016. In this and in the following year, we’ll have the opportunity to view the exhibitional materials at our international partner museums. Through open brainstorming, we try to come up with unique ideas to enrich all ages and to make it possible to the Hungarian audience to relate to the Millennium Development Goals, and to open the window towards the world.