All-Hungarian High School Camp will welcome students with Hungarian roots from several parts of the world.Continue reading
The Rákóczi Association is hosting three hundred and fifty children of Ukrainian families affected by the war for a week. On Saturday, the students attended the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, visited the Parliament, and then went off to spend a week at the Rákóczi Camp in Sátoraljaújhely (northern Hungary along the Slovak border).
In his welcome speech at the National Athletics Center, Miklós Panyi, Parliamentary and Strategic State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, said that since the outbreak of the war, the Hungarian government has been doing everything possible to provide for the people of Ukraine.
In the past year and a half, more than one million people have arrived in Hungary, including thousands of children, he said. Thousands of them are currently being accommodated, with more than 5,000 children from Ukraine attending Hungarian educational institutions.
Children are one of the biggest victims of the war,”
the State Secretary pointed out.
He stressed that the children were being helped in every way possible, including by supporting the organization of camps, such as the Rákóczi Camp. Last year too, more than a thousand children from Ukraine attended camps in Hungary.
He underlined that
more than three thousand children can camp in the Erzsébet camp in Zánka (at Lake Balaton, northern shore), eight hundred in Fonyódliget (on the southern shore of Lake Balaton), and six hundred in the Rákóczi Association’s complex in Sátoraljaújhely,
ensuring the recreation of tens of thousands of Hungarian children in need every year. Children from Ukraine who are in difficulty can also join this system, he added.
Children of war-affected Ukrainian families arriving for the World Athletics Championships programs at the National Athletics Center on August 26, 2023. Photo: MTI/Peter Lakatos
The Ukrainian youth arriving in Hungary on Saturday were able to get an insight into the events of the World Athletics Championships, where Ukrainian athletes were also doing well. Sport is an opportunity for nations and peoples of the world to come closer together, said Panyi.
The students were later welcomed at the Parliament on Saturday. The event included a minute of silence in memory of those who gave their lives in the war for the freedom of Ukraine and the future of their children.
Children of Ukrainian families affected by the war who are camping in Hungary in the Parliament building on August 26, 2023. Photo: MTI/Róbert Hegedüs
After a sightseeing tour of Budapest, the children continued to the Rákóczi Camp in Sátoraljaújhely, where they will participate in excursions, handicraft activities, and sports programs until September 1.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, more than 1, 180,000 refugees have entered Hungary, 600,000 of whom have sought help at aid centers, train stations, or charities.
Featured image: MTI/Peter Lakatos
