In the early days of the war in Ukraine, besides continuously praying for peace, we appealed to our friends to be our partners in helping refugees. Hundreds of people responded, some with financial support, others with accommodation or voluntary work. On behalf of the people in need, we thank you for your cooperation, the fruits of which are presented below. If you would like to send financial donation, see the details below.
Do you live outside Hungary, but you would like to offer financial support for the Hungarian Jesuits as a contribution to the help of the refugees? From abroad you may send your donation to our bank account below:
Name of recipient:
JTMR Adományszámla (JTMR donation bank account)
Bank account number:
HU23 10702019-19014056-55200004
Swift/BIC:
CIBHHUHB
Bank name:
CIB Bank Ltd.
Bank address:
Budapest, Petrezselyem u. 2-8.
HU-1024
Notice:
Ukraine+your postal or e-mail address
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 Ukrainian refugees.
A platform for collecting donations
We have partly dedicated our website for the news on the help of the refugees, and for the financial and other kinds of donations.
Financial donations
Our province has earmarked 5 million HUF to support the expenses of the refugees and the needy who remain at home, as well as to provide a back-up for relief work. As of 21 March, a further 7,5 million HUF have been donated by more than 170 of our friends. Before last weekend’s Holy Mass in the churches of our province, a collection was announced, during which our parishioners raised more than 1.5 million HUF. Thus we are now 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, we have 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 our friends and by using our own capacity, to date, we have managed to accommodate more than 70 refugees, mainly in Budapest.
Donations in-kind
In the first round, the Jesuit Refugee Service delivered baby care and feminine hygiene items, cutlery, soft drinks to the border station in Záhony, as well as beds and matrasses, in cooperation with the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church. In the second phase, donations in-kind were taken to Beregszász (Berehove), a Hungarian city near the Eastern border of Ukraine. The Fényi Gyula Jesuit High School in Miskolc launched a dry food collection, the Saint Ignatius Jesuit College provided food, hygiene and baby care equipment, fundraising and interpretation, and the Jesuit Roma College helped with clothing, durable food, toiletries, baby items and sorting donations in the warehouse at the railway station.
Volunteer recruitment
In the first weeks of our call, more than 100 people have applied for volunteering in various fields: distributing meal, doing IT-work or working in our call center for the ones seeking accommodation. The first group to be formed was the team running the mission at the railway station, in cooperation with other religious orders. In the past days we have made several visits to the Eastern Railway Station with our volunteers, so that we can welcome people arriving by train on a regular basis. Our mission is carried out in cooperation with other religious orders in Hungary, and will be relocated soon to a sports hall dedicated to the welcoming of the refugees.
By bus to the frontier
At the two previous weekends, a friend of ours hired a 50-seater bus to transport aid donations to the border and refugees from there back to Budapest. We helped with our 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. In addition, the Fényi Gyula Jesuit High School in Miskolc has started teaching Hungarian students from Transcarpathia.
Cooperation
We are carrying out our relief service 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 instituons involved in helping the Ukrainian refugees.
Website for managing donations
A working group led by László Elek SJ, with the help of volunteer IT specialists, has been set up within the Ignatian Pedagogical Workshop to develop a website to manage donations for refugees in a more transparent and up-to-date way. The most IT-savvy Jesuit in our diocese is also involved in the development of ukrainehelp.hu and joladnijo.jmsz.hu.
Prayer and fasting
In the evening of 18 March, the alumni of the Fényi Gyula Jesuit High School in Miskolc organised an evening of prayer for peace in the Jesuit Church of the Sacred Heart in Budapest. Besides, Szabolcs Sajgó SJ, director of the Jesuit Refugee Service and the coordinator of the relief service in our province, initiated a novena, a nine-day prayer and fasting for the conversion of Russia and Ukraine, having started on 16 March and reaching out to more than a hundred thousand people.
Aid concert
Our province embraces all kinds of efforts to help the people in need in some way. For example, the Faludi Ferenc Jesuit Academy and the Jesuit House of Dialogue are organising a charity concert on 9 April, featuring medical professionals as musicians who witnessed the tragedy of the Covid epidemic and want to help orphaned children and refugee families.
