Népfőiskola Foundation

The Lakitelek Foundation was founded by Sándor Lezsák and his wife in 1991. In 1992, the Foundation's five-member Board of Trustees set up the People's College Foundation in Lakitelek on a 4-hectare site as a special purpose grant, with the aim of providing an intellectual and practical resource for improving the quality of life of the people living in the smallest settlements through its adult education colleges and courses.

In addition to European-level conferences and scientific meetings, the People's College Foundation offers participants in summer open-air universities, advocacy forums, camps and courses, which assess the reality of Hungary and our narrower homeland, a renewable resource for shaping a healthy vision of the future, beyond the moral and intellectual experience.

In 2000, the Board of Trustees of the People's College Foundation transferred the ownership of the property to the Diocese of Szeged-Csanád, with the proviso that the People's College Foundation remains the manager of the property, the land and the buildings.

The People's College in Lakitelek is also a centre of national emigration. Thousands of books, Hungarian-language newspapers, periodicals, small printed matter, pamphlets and other written material, other documents and relics from all over the world, as well as the permanent exhibition "Emigration for the Homeland", have been collected over decades and provide an authentic picture of the life and work of Hungarian communities, artists and writers from Western Europe and overseas.

On 22 March 2003, the Board of Trustees of the Hungarian Heritage Award presented the Hungarian Heritage Award to the Foundation in recognition of its pedagogical and community organizing work.

Since 2004, the Népfőiskola Foundation has also been performing public tasks as a charitable foundation, including: health preservation, scientific work, family support, research and ensuring equal opportunities, education, dissemination of knowledge, support for Hungarians living beyond the borders, cultural, sporting and social activities, and the organisation of value-exploring colleges in the Carpathian Basin.

As a result of more than 20 years of persistent work, in 2013 the government decided to support the development of the Folk High School owned by the Bishopric of Szeged-Csanád as a priority government investment, which has now resulted in the creation of the Hungarikum Island to provide a supportive environment for the work of the Folk High School. Its mission: self-sustainability, presentation and preservation of the Christian national past and its values, as well as learning about what is happening in the present, and paying attention to world events so that we can decide what we need to think about in order to be successful in the future.

The Folk High School Foundation, as the centre of the Folk High School network, organises and manages the Folk High Schools in the Carpathian Basin that are part of its network.

The Folk High School is open all year round, and in addition to the work of the Folk High School, it welcomes groups and individual visitors. In addition to internal training and seminars for national and international conferences, institutions and companies, it also organises banquets, weddings, friendly gatherings, family and sports events. It rewards the research work of talented young people with scholarships and provides regular opportunities for applications. Students from Lakitelek who are pursuing higher education can apply for scholarships on a monthly basis, based on their academic achievements.