Hungary. Together with Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Moldova, Hungary is one of the countries towards which the largest number of Ukrainian migrants is concentrating. Humanitarian organizations, parishes, and locals have mobilized mainly at borders and railway stations, distributing food, collecting and delivering donations, organizing transport and accommodation.
The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the Communities of Mogyoród, Budapest, and Eger, of the Triveneta Province of St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello (ITV), also collaborate with various ecclesial and civil organizations and are committed to welcoming migrants.
“In Hungary there is a great sense of humanity towards these brothers and sisters”, says an FMA from the House of Eger. “State and Church work together and with organizations such as Caritas, the Order of Malta, and other local NGOs. They are very organized in transport from the border with Ukraine and from the humanitarian corridors to the various municipalities of the Hungarian cities.
Mothers with children and elderly people arrive from the border area called Karpatoja. Many speak Hungarian, but the majority only speak Ukrainian and Russian. They have a great sadness on their faces and speak with pain and nostalgia for their land. The Hungarian state has made available cultural facilitators and mediators, mainly university students, but also hospitals, schools, meals, and accommodation.
At Budapest, as FMA, we have reported to the State the new house, “Don Bosco Center”, to host some children or families, who will arrive shortly. For now the sisters work with the local Caritas, the Municipality, and the Parish. The Kindergarten hosts six Ukrainian children.
At Mogyoród we actively collaborate with Caritas, with the Municipality, and with the Parish. In the Kindergarten, 5 little Ukrainians have been welcomed.
At Eger we host two little girls, sisters of one of our Ukrainian university students, daughter of a Greek-Catholic pastor. In their drawings they write in Hungarian, ’Thank you for hosting us’ and ’Thank you for everything’. The parents stayed at the front to help and support the people and so the two little girls, who attend the fifth and second grade, stay with us. They attend school online. However, the Hungarian state has opened schools of all grades to all Ukrainian students who wish to attend.
In the City of Eger, refugees are housed in two large university colleges and the students who lived there have been placed elsewhere. We FMA have brought food, disinfectants, soaps, and necessities for personal cleaning to one of the boarding schools, especially for the children. The university students have been collecting long-life food for a month and we have already gone with them three times to deliver it.
In addition, we have raised awareness among animators and university volunteers to animate children and young people and a beautiful network of solidarity has been formed. They take turns and we go together with them to bring the children and young people a little Salesian joy. They have become our friends and are waiting for us, even if they only speak Russian and Ukrainian and don’t understand everything.
Families in Hungary are competing to host them at home and/or to buy them something that makes this hard time less difficult. The Ukrainians, with great dignity, stay in the boarding schools for a while, then they look for a more appropriate accommodation.
We entrust everything to the good Lord and we ask for peace for our Ukrainian brethren, but also for the Russians, and for the whole world!”.
The Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians counts on the generosity of the Educative Communities, Associations and benefactors to continue to bring aid to the FMA of Ukraine and neighboring Provinces that receive refugees. You can send contributions and offerings, through Donate now or through the methods indicated on the FMA Institute website, designating the Ukraine Emergency in the causal.
See also:
Aid to Ukrainian Migrants – PLA
