As the charities and volunteers themselves are well aware, the economic crisis has increased poverty levels in Hungary, so we organise special events around the country on Christmas, Easter, Children's Day and other special days. For many families, the festive season is a time of togetherness, relaxation and feasting, while for others it is a time of financial hardship. These days are particularly difficult for many families, with many children unable to get enough food at home during the school holidays due to a lack of nursery and school meals, and parents finding it even harder to provide food over a long weekend. In addition, going without food during the festive season can be emotionally stressful. This is where they want to offer support.
Our nationwide Christmas charity feast takes place in several counties, in nearly 20 locations, serving a total of 6-7000 meals. Our programme in Budapest has been held every year on 24-25-26 December at Blaha Lujza Square. On each of the three days, we distributed 1200 portions of hot food, tea, Indian sweets and a rich food parcel, along with several bags of warm clothes and religious literature to nourish the spirit. In the days before and after Christmas, we will also be holding special distributions in other cities in the countryside, such as Debrecen, Eger, Kecskemét, Szeged and Miskolc.
In addition to food, we also organise clothing and toy distributions during our festive campaigns, for which we welcome donations from the public. We hope that the good quality toys and clothing items that are sorted out during the clean-up will not be thrown away, but will be delivered to us in a cleaned condition so that we can pass them on.
Celebrities, artists, musicians and athletes have been helping with the Christmas food distribution for several years. The presence of Mariann Falusi Pa-Dö-Dő has delighted even the little ones. Iván Fischer, the conductor, brought his own children to the food distribution, as he said, as an example, so that they would understand and learn that Christmas is about giving, not about receiving. Watching András Laár and Tibor Selmeczi, we could understand that the most important thing in every situation in life is humour, which increases one's strength and will to live, but also present were musician Péter Huzella, Olympian Sándor Németh „Nyiba” and K-1 world champion Tibor Nagy. Thank you for your help and for supporting volunteering in our country!
This programme brings together around 80 volunteers over the winter period and raises awareness of the importance of tolerance and compassion for each other. Our volunteers want to create an extraordinary social cohesion to help our fellow human beings in a selfless way. We encourage all those who wish to donate to distribute their donations themselves during these days, so that they can come into personal contact with other people in difficulty and establish an honest and helpful communication between them, transcending all difficulties.