Caritas Hungary have continued to work together with the Nyíregyházi Diocesan Caritas and the Debrecen-Nyíregyháza Diocesan Caritas. We provide service at the Barabás-Mezőkaszony (Косонь) border crossing point. We have a Caritas Base located next to the temporary warming place. Ukrainian and Ukranian-Hungarian people come here from the border station. They can relax in a warm place until acquaintances come for them or they get to a reception station - from where they are directed to accommodations. Ukrainian mothers and grandmothers with lots of children come to us, also there are a lot of African and Indian undergraduate students, whose transit we must assist. We try to cater for the newcomers (water, sandwiches, tea, etc). We will also transport them to the requested places: railway stations, larger settlements. Some of them need rest, they can sleep, they can get food and logistic help at the Caritas Base. We also try to reach their relatives, who stayed in Ukraine.
People come from the border in waves, there are at least 100 people in every two hours. We play with the kids, the little ones might not even understand the reason for the trip, as if they were going somewhere. On the first two days we had cca 5.000 refugees at the base. We also have a priest here, who can help people and staff mentally as well. Caritas Base works with 13-15 colleagues and many volunteers.
Meanwhile, President Gábor Écsy travelled to Ukraine, to assess the situation in Transcarpathia. He brought supplies with Caritas employees to Munkács (Мукачево) and Beregszász (Берегове). The supplies were transported by two trucks, and included durable food: 525 litres of oil, 9810 box of liver pate, 800 kg pasta, 1690 pieces of canned peas. The shipment is worth around four million Hungarian forints (4,000,000 HUF).
Photos: Caritas Hungary
