Interview with Marta Kapusta on SBS Slovak Broadcast

Marta congratulations on your election to President office for Australian Slovaks' Association in Victoria. This is an important change in the life of the organization. Why did you set for this hard work and at first why did you chose to candidate for this position? 

It was a difficult decision Mr Bučko, if you did ask me this question the same time last year I would say no, thank you I'm not interested. I like working for community but lead the community is very responsible and and difficult task. I am aware that I need a support of the whole community to be successful in this role. I would like to thank everyone who attended the annual general meeting and supported my candidacy but also to those who did not support it because it is a challenge for me to work hard to deserve their votes and trust in the future.

So what is your biggest objective you would like to achieve in this first term?

My goal is to unite the community and to get more young members. My candidacy was supported mostly by younger generation who also became the members of ASAV's committee. It is obvious that the association can not continue without support and participation of young people.

Yes this is challenge for many organisations, whether for the The Slovak Social and Cultural Association “Ľudovít Štúr”, organisations in Sydney, Perth or elsewhere. Do you have any special recipe for how to involve young people in our community?

I do not think there is a recipe for this, I think it is very random and we are very thankful we have a young people from Slovakia who came as students and decided to settle here permanently and also have the talent to devote to community. Despite of the fact that there is a relatively large Slovak community in Victoria the involvement and attendance of association's activities was very low and declining from year to year.
I believe that if young people organize the activities for themselves and they can own the ideas, be initiative we have a chance that our community will cherish and we can have interesting community life.

So what are your ideas about how to enrich community life and bring more young people to association and increase their participation on events.

I presented some of the ideas at the annual general meeting and a lot of ideas have come from members of the association too. My major focus is to attract young people and also keep the older generation interested and involved by organizing programs to help young generation, especially families with children. I would like to maintain and support the initiatives that occurred last year in working with children area where Mrs Maria Garland organized interesting activities for families with children such as Easter traditions and she also organized a dance group for children. I think the role of each organization is to bring up it's own generation. When we start from the youngest we stand a chance that our organization will continue. I would like ASAV to help create a welcoming environment where students from Slovakia can find their second home. We have lots of ideas and some of them need time to mature, because they are only ideas at this stage.
One important task is to create an accountable Committee and delegate certain areas of community interest to its members. For example I would like to delegate responsibility for certain area such as work with children and puppet shows, work with elderly community or sport and recreation to a committee member or group of members who will manage this area, will organize the events and put forward the proposals for approval of the whole committee.

One of the issues of Slovaks living abroad, not only in Australia but anywhere in the world is the assimilation process and disappearance of Slovak language. What particularly would you like to do to address this.

I have been thinking about how to maintain our lovely language for a long time. Until now there was no space nor available teacher who could teach Slovak. As the situation developed Mrs. Ľudmila Antalová, the qualified teacher from Slovakia is willing to teach small children and adults who are interested in Slovak language.

I noticed that the Tomka couple and also very proactive Maria Garland newly elected committee members are also members of the committee Vodafest Organization. If these people bring new ideas it is the question of where they decide to present them, whether they present them at the Vodafest committee or ASAV committee. Don't you think that this could cause conflict of interest.

I will answer this question very clearly Mr Bučko. I am also member of Vodafest association. Vodafest is a festival for Czechs and Slovaks. It is a platform which allow us to showcase our culture and share our views so that we can raise the awareness of Australian society about Slovak community living in Melbourne.
For the similar reasons had been organized also Australia Day People's March this year in January  when we have historically for the first time represented our Slovak minority and celebrate Australia Day side by side with other Australian nationalities. I think that this was an amazing experience for anyone who participated on the day and it was specially noted to all the VIP guests and participants that Slovak community participates on the march for the first time. I would also like to say that Mrs Maria Garland is not a member of the Vodafest Committee. I certainly do not think that it is a conflict of interest, since Vodafest as the organization was established to assist with legal and financial requirements for the festival only.

Thank you for the interview. I wish you good luck with realization of all your ideas in these difficult times, I wish you a lot of energy and especially a lot of patience, goodness and love in cooperation with people.

Thank you and I hope I covered all your questions, I would like to say that I look forward to working with people and I will try to create an environment where we can join our forces to organize the most successful events for all generations of Slovaks from the youngest to the oldest and also for all our friends from different corners of the world. I hope that everyone will find some peace of joy and will enjoy our activities.

At last, but not least I would like to thank to the leaving President Ms Terezia Kral for her long hard work and dedication to work with community. Thank you for all the time spend by organizing events, helping Slovak people, elderly or sick, helping families in need. Especially I would like to thank for organization of theatrical performances that were truly successful and I hope the performances will continue and promise that the new committee will always support activities of the Slovak Theater Amateur Group (STAG) under Terezia's leadership.

Interviewed by Andrej Bučko, SBS Radio on 2nd October 2011
The interview transcript was adjusted/shorten for the purposes of the web site. You can listen to the whole interview in Slovak language here.