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In the early days of the war in Ukraine, besides continuously praying for peace, the Hungarian Jesuits appealed to their friends to be partners in helping refugees. Hundreds of people responded, some with financial support, others with accommodation or voluntary work, as presented below.

Cooperation

The Hungarian Jesuit Refugee Service is in the forefront of the relief service, its director, Szabolcs Sajgó SJ having been appointed to the Province Coordinator for Humanitarian activities related to war issues. However, the whole province is doing its best to help, in cooperation with Caritas Hungary, the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta, the office of the Hungarian religious orders, as well as Roman and Greek Catholic dioceses, plus other organisations and institutions involved in helping the refugees.

A platform for collecting donations

The Hungarian province has partly dedicated its website for the news on the help of the refugees, and for the financial and other kinds of donations.

Financial donations

After the outbreak of the war, the province earmarked 5 million HUF to support the refugees, and until the end of March, 8 million HUF was donated by more than 180 of its friends. A special collection was also launched by the Hungarian Jesuit churches before the third Sunday of March, which resulted in 2 million HUF. Thus the province is able to help the refugees with a total of almost 15 MILLION HUF, an equivalent of 40 THOUSAND EUR.

Accommodation

From the first days of the crisis, the province has conveyed accommodation for many refugees at various Hungarian organisations and institutions. Besides, in response to the Jesuit appeal, over 30 people have offered shelter in their homes for the refugees. Thanks to its friends and by using its own capacity, to date, the Hungarian Jesuits have managed to accommodate nearly a hundred refugees.

Donations in-kind

In the first round, the Jesuit Refugee Service delivered baby care and feminine hygiene items, cutlery, soft drinks beds and matrasses to the Ukrainian-Hungarian border. In the second phase, donations in-kind were taken to Beregszász (Berehove), a Hungarian city near the Eastern border of Ukraine. Other Jesuit institutions and communities have also launched collection for donations in-kind.

Volunteer recruitment

In the first weeks of the Hungarian Jesuits’ appeal, more than 100 people applied for volunteering. The first group to be formed was the team for helping the refugees at the Eastern railway station in Budapest, later in a sports hall dedicated to the welcoming of the refugees

By bus to the frontier

At two weekends of March, a friend of the province hired a 50-seater bus to transport aid donations to the border and refugees from there back to Budapest. The Jesuits helped with their staff and volunteers to take care of the incoming people’s needs, transport and accommodation.

Jesuits for the education of refugee students

The Jesuit Refugee Service is offering, free of charge, and has made available online its book titled Refugee Children in our School and the Hungarian language book titled Zia and Zahra in the Mulberry School to institutions that organise school enrolment or any other form of education.

Website for managing donations

With the help of volunteer IT specialists, a working group has been set up to develop a website to manage donations for refugees in a more transparent and up-to-date way.

Jesuits HUN

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