Hernádszentandrás is a small village with a population of 450 in North East Hungary. It has an unemployment rate of 40%, and 35% of the population is of Roma ethnicity. The region is listed in the multiply disadvantaged category. For centuries, traditional agriculture provided work and a living for the people in the area.

During the years of socialism following World War II, those who did not migrate from the village into towns to become industrial workers, worked in the local farming cooperative. After the change of political regime (1990) the cooperatives disappeared and, like so many other Hungarian villages, Hernádszentandrás was also struck by unemployment. For nearly two decades the residents of the village vegetated in hopelessness. Even their school was closed down. In the lack of intellectual capital the village lost its identity entirely.