HELPING IN A HUNGARIAN WAY
‘Hungary helps’ is a helping program set up in Hungary to help people in Near East and in Africa. As a rule it comprises suffering Christians, but it differs from other international helping actions not only with it. Fund being under the responsibility of the Hungarian government is passed over directly to the Christians in need there. So, organizations specialized in the international humanitarian help were eliminated, and which can ‘eat up’ thirty percent of funds, and pass over the same amount for purposes incompatible with a donor’s will – for example, in order to finance abortion within life and health protection. The Hungarians wanted to have control over this process and they have it. The program was started last year, and it has already started bringing particular effects. Works were begun on building a school and a hospital for the Christians in one of cities in Iraq, and reconstruction of twelve houses of the Christians was begun near Mosul, funds were collected for a special stipendium program for young people from persecuted Christian families, reconstruction of over 30 destroyed Christian in Near East was supported, and financial humanitarian help was given to the Syrian-Catholic patriarch of Antioch. Also the Syrian Orthodox Church received financial help. Medications were bought for the Hospital of St. Joseph in Irbil, in northern Iraq. In Jordan the Hungarian government is financing the centre of youth society for refugees, and in Iraq – the centre of support for return and rebuilding the local infrastructure, including support for education and psycho-social help. Millions of forints are sent for all these purposes from Hungary. I did not notice anybody who would see this glorious Hungarian initiative in the European Union. Whereas one can still hear voices of criticism for refusing to let refugees into one’s territory. Or maybe the curtain of silence was pulled down because of another breach of political correctness by Hungary? – as it is helping only Christians and is speaking about their persecutions in public. Such opinions were heard in Washington, where it was officially announced that the helping Hungarian program would be started. What I found interesting was the voice of the vice-president of the USA Mike Pence who said that among over 160 helping programs of the UNO, none of them served with help to the Christians’. And what is it like in the European Union? After all, the Christian one! Will it decide to ‘co-create community’ out of the Hungarian action or will it treat it as a kind of regional product? Well, like the Hungarian goulash, letcho, Hungarian soup and ….Hungarian help.
Translation: Aneta Amrozik
„Niedziela” 3/2018 (21 I 2018)