Latest news with #HungaryHelps
Budapest Times
08-04-2025
- Health
- Budapest Times
State Secretary: Hungary Helps program's mission in Nigeria yielded important results
The Hungarian delegation visited places in Nigeria where the Hungarian government cooperated with local church organisations and provided humanitarian aid to persecuted Christians. Tristan Azbej, the state secretary in charge of assistance to Christian communities, said on Sunday that the Hungary Helps program's recent five-day mission in Nigeria has yielded important results. The state secretary posted on Facebook from a Christian refugee camp in Benue State, and said the Hungarian delegation had visited places in Nigeria where the Hungarian government cooperated with local church organisations and provided humanitarian aid to persecuted Christians. He said the mission had gone as far as the zone of active operations of the Boko Haram terrorist organisation, distributing food to refugees and victims of catastrophic flooding in Maiduguri. In Onitsha, Hungary Helps inaugurated a training centre for 400 nurses, the state secretary said. The Hungarian delegation, including MEP Gyorgy Holvenyi, met Nigeria's humanitarian affairs minister, as well as Christian and Muslim leaders, to discuss humanitarian aid, cooperation on developments, peaceful cooperation among different religious groups and preventing migration to Europe, Azbej said. He also said that the Hungarian government would provide 23 million forints for a Hungarian medical mission and the drilling of wells for drinking water in the coming weeks.
Budapest Times
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Hungary provides aid to survivors of last week's earthquake in Myanmar
The people of Myanmar are not just in need of food, water and medical care, but also hope and solidarity, Tristan Azbej said. State Secretary Tristan Azbej said that Hungary's government is providing 5 million forints (EUR 12,420) in emergency humanitarian aid through the Hungary Helps scheme to the survivors of last week's earthquake in Myanmar. Azbej, the state secretary in charge of the program and aid to persecuted Christians, said on Facebook that the beneficiary of the aid is Caritas Hungary, the aid organisation of the Catholic Church, which, through its local Catholic partner, can deliver the aid directly to those who need it. The people of Myanmar are not just in need of food, water and medical care, but also hope and solidarity, the state secretary said. 'Hungary, building on its Christian values and humanity, stands with those in need at this difficult time,' he added. Azbej noted that last Friday's 7.7-magnitude earthquake was one of Myanmar's worst natural disasters of the past century. More than 1,700 people have been confirmed dead, close to 3,400 were injured, and 300 people are unaccounted for, he said, adding that experts expect these figures to rise. The search for survivors and relief efforts are made more difficult by the ongoing civil war and damaged infrastructure, he said.
Budapest Times
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
MEP: Russia-Ukraine war is a shame on Christianity
György Hölvényi highlighted the Hungary Helps program as an "exemplary" scheme aimed to "build hospitals, clinics and health infrastructure to ease the everyday lives of those suffering." György Hölvényi, an MEP of the co-ruling Christian Democrats, said the Russia-Ukraine war is a 'shame on Christianity, because Christians are killing Christians.' In an interview with on Wednesday, Hölvényi noted the 'peacekeeping, conflict managing and peace making opportunity and commitment' of churches, and said church leaders could play a key role when it came to peace making and reconstruction. On another subject, Hölvényi said the Patriots for Europe group's recently established working group for religious freedoms and for a dialogue with churches and religious communities was crucial in raising consciousness about the magnitude of the persecution of Christians in the world. 'Many MEPs are not aware of the situation of Christians and the level of persecution,' he said. 'If somebody is killed in Iraq or the Sudan, Europe has to do something because they rely on us a continent with a Christian culture, for help,' Holvenyi said. The MEP highlighted the Hungary Helps program as an 'exemplary' scheme aimed to 'build hospitals, clinics and health infrastructure to ease the everyday lives of those suffering.' On the subject of the EU's migration pact, Hölvényi said the document was 'practically equal to legalising migration' and argued that under the pact it was 'near-impossible' to return migrants to their own countries, and called for an effective tool for expulsion.
Budapest Times
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
FM: Hungary will continue to support Christian communities in Middle East
Minister Szijjártó said the world was living in "an era of dangers", and the situation in the Middle East had a significant impact on the security of central Europe. Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary's government will continue to support the Christian communities of the Middle East so they can remain in their homeland, adding that 'the birthplace of Christianity without Christians is unimaginable'. In a keynote speech at a conference in Budapest on the future of Lebanon's Christian community, Minister Szijjártó said the world was living in 'an era of dangers', and the situation in the Middle East had a significant impact on the security of central Europe. Hungary therefore had a vested interest in the region's peace and stability, a ministry statement quoted him as saying. Minister Szijjártó said Lebanon played a key role in the stability of the Middle East and had a sizable Christian community. He said that Hungary, as a country with more than a thousand years of Christian statehood, felt heavy responsibility for the world's Christian communities, especially for those facing hardship and persecution. 'And unfortunately the Christians living in Lebanon are experiencing their share of hardship,' Minister Szijjártó said. 'Therefore, it's an important goal of ours to help Lebanon's Christian community and keep doing so.' Minister Szijjártó said it was important to ensure that Lebanon's Christians are not forced to leave their homeland. 'We must make sure that the places that have been home to Christian communities for centuries aren't left without Christians.' He said this meant that Christian communities needed to be aided and strengthened locally. He noted that the Hungary Helps humanitarian programme has spent tens of millions of dollars on enabling the Middle Eastern and specifically Lebanese Christian communities to stay in their homeland. 'This requires investments to create jobs,' he said. 'This requires schools so that children have a place to learn. It requires social and health institutions. And it requires churches so that people can practise their faith.' Over the last seven years, the Hungarian government has spent some 20 million US dollars on 38 such programmes in Lebanon, he said, adding that it was 'perhaps most proud' of the fact that it has renovated close to 100 ancient Christian churches. 'Hungary is prepared to continue these programmes.' Meanwhile, Minister Szijjártó said one key issue regarding the future of Lebanon's Christian community was when the Syrian refugees taken in by the country would return home, given that their care was a 'huge burden' on Lebanon. He said his European counterparts had been saying for over ten years now that the situation would quickly improve after former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was gone. 'Now that Assad is gone, I think it's time the international community promoted the repatriation of the Syrians who fled to Lebanon,' he added. Minister Szijjártó called for the creation of the necessary political, security and economic conditions for the repatriations, saying it was 'time to put political correctness aside and speak about this matter honestly and openly, and take this massive burden off Lebanon's shoulder'. He said the aim of Friday's conference was to establish a mechanism for aiding Lebanon's long-term development, with Christian communities taking on the lion's share. 'This, of course, requires resources,' Minister Szijjártó said. 'We're prepared to contribute. We hope that the members of the Lebanese diaspora, as well as organizations and foreign players, will also contribute their fair share…' He said Hungary was prepared to run a secretariat for such a mechanism in Budapest.
