Hungary’s five-day humanitarian mission to Nigeria, led by the Hungary Helps programme, concluded with new aid pledges and key partnerships to support persecuted Christian communities and promote interfaith cooperation, officials announced on Sunday.
Hungary Helps, a humanitarian aid programme launched by the Hungarian government in 2017, has recently funded the construction of a new church at the site of Jesus Christ’s baptism by the Jordan River in Jordan. Hungary Helps focuses on oppressed Christians in the Middle East.
According to State Secretary for Assisting Persecuted Christians and Implementing the Hungary Helps Program Tristan Azbej the purpose of the meeting was for the Hungarian government to share its knowledge and experience regarding Hungary’s policy of aiding persecuted Christians.
Christian persecution takes many forms; it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Jesus Christ.
Tristan Azbej explained that through these amendments, Hungary will not only provide humanitarian aid but also contribute to economic development and peace-building efforts.
The Roman Catholic Church’s charity organization, Caritas Hungary has provided some four million forints in aid to the families affected by a tragic boarding school accident in Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuisesc) in Transylvania. Caritas has also launched a donation drive to further help the victims of the accident.
As an article by Premier Christian highlighted, for Armenians, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh is not just a geographical relocation, but also the act of severing ties with their deeply engrained cultural and religious heritage.
The assistance provided by the Hungary Helps Programme will be directed towards Armenian nationals who have had to flee the Karabakh due to the escalation of the conflict that has been ongoing for three decades. The Interchurch Aid and the Hungarian Lutheran Church have also initiated a solidarity fundraising campaign.
‘Many people have died, almost every family is mourning someone, and providing for the family is a daily struggle…we are talking about people who fled the horrors of war, their hometown, and even often their country, and yet we saw that even a gesture of help is sufficient to encourage them to accept the uncertainty and difficulties and return to their homeland. No sane person does this unless they believe in something, and these people believe in providence,’ State Secretary in Charge of Aid to Persecuted Christian Communities Tristan Azbej said in a recent interview.
The Hungary Helps Programme, however, does not only help persecuted Christians, but provides effective support in crisis areas and areas that are hit by man-made or natural disasters as well. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Hungary has provided 130 billion forints (335.6 million euros) in aid to the victims of the war in Ukraine. Hungary also sent ten tons of relief supplies to Turkey immediately after the deadly earthquakes on 6 February and 50 million forints (132,000 euros) to Syria.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
