Budapest Bike Mafia Wins 'Innovative Social Initiative' Award at SozialMarie

BBM, who we introduced to our readers earlier, became one of the projects awarded with 1000 euros at the SozialMarie Awards, in Vienna. It's exciting to see that a biker gang killing time with helping homeless people can gather that much awareness, support, and success. Hoo-ah!

But Budapest Bike Mafia is so much more than that. Taking part in the Szimpla Market, cooking and transferring the goods offered by the random buyers of the hip farmer's market to families with many kids is firming BBM's position in the civil underground of Budapest, and shows the vitality of the whole network.

Congratulations, BBM!



There are another developments from the news about the awards that fuel All Plants Bulletin's enthusiasm:

One is that Romani Platni also came home with an award. RP is about roma women of District 9 cooking for strangers and welcoming them for a traditional roma dinner in a homely environment. We could go on and on about breaking social borders and bringin cultures together, but we spare you from that for now. Romani Platni also visited Szatyor once, cooking from the high quality local ingredients of Szatyor's suppliers - a project that came into being from the humble idea and suggestion of the APB editorial.

And here comes the big stuff: 'Against Fuel Poverty with Biobriquette', another Hungarian project, focusing on helping poor families cut their energy bills with renewable, sustainable solutions won the first prize of this year's SozialMarie, and the 15 000 Euros it comes with - a huge boost for a low-tech enterprise, which we will examine a bit more later on here, on the pages of All Plants Bulletin.

What is SozialMarie?

"The objective of SozialMarie is to make innovative social ideas and their realisation known to a broad public. By means of these prizes, Unruhe Private Foundation encourages networking amongst projects. These projects can then serve as examples or models for other interested parties. For the ninth time already, the SozialMarie awards put social innovation before a broad public. About 1700 socially innovative projects have been submitted since the first SozialMarie edition in 2005 and 120 of these have won awards. Every year, outstanding socially innovative projects that strike by their innovative force and creativity compete for the prizes endowed with 42,000 Euro. Eligible for submission are projects from anywhere in Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia and Germany for practical reasons projects must not be more than 300km (as the crow flies) away from Vienna." - according to their website.

Party Hard with Budapest Bike Mafia!

Budapest Bike Mafia is probably the coolest gang in town. A small band of guys had this idea a few years ago, that they ride out into the cold night of Christmas Eve, and give presents to homeless people all over the city. This idea by now has grown to an initiative with more than 50 volunteers, who hit the streets regulary through the winter, giving clothes, blankets and food to the ones in dire need. They also teamed up with Szimpla Market, a farmer's market gathering held at a hip Budapest ruin pub every Sunday, where you can share the food you have bought there with them. They put your stuff in white sacks on which you can write a message if you want, and they transport it to poor families. 

This insanely cool pack of volunteering wolves hit the dancefloor on Friday night at Gozsdu Manó Klub, a small music pub in the depths of the jewish district, known for hosting events for people with the most peculiar musical tastes. This time it's gonna be the current episode of the " Mighty Nineties" party series where original 90's hits, 90's underground classics, and mashups will be on the menu, plus, the party itself will operate as a "Charity Point" for BBM, so you can drop whatever you want to aid their cause with there, and get properly wasted in the company of heroes.

If someone says there's a better way to spend your Friday night, slap him in the face with a dead fish from Római Part, and run away.

(If you happen to understand Hungarian spoken word well, check out this podcast interview APB made under the susnyas transmissions flag with BBM officer Zoltán Havasi , here.)