Order of Malta

On 4 February, the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta, one of the first NGOs established after the change of regime, turned 35.Today it is the country's leading charity organisation, providing social and health care services with 300 institutions and 120 volunteer groups, providing care to an average of 15,000 people every day. In addition to traditional relief activities, the organisation is involved in innovations such as the introduction of telemedicine clinics in villages without doctors, and the development of social solar power plants.

 

The Hungarian Chrity Service of the Order of Malta was founded on 4 February 1989, immediately after the law allowing the creation of NGOs was passed. It was registered by the court under number 10, as a non-profit organisation caring for the poor and the destitute. It attracted international attention that same year for its work in taking in East German refugees, its relief operations during the Romanian Revolution and later its humanitarian work in the Balkan war. In the autumn of 1990, the Service opened its first shelter for homeless people in what was then Moscow Square, and gradually set up new groups throughout the country.

 

Thirty-five years on, the Charity Service of the Order of Malta is one of the largest charitable organisations in Hungary, caring for almost 6,000 homeless people through its more than 60 homeless care centres, 3,000 people in its old people's homes, 2,500 people with disabilities in its institutions, and 3,000 children, most of them disadvantaged, in its 17 public education institutions.

 

In addition to traditional forms of care, the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service has introduced a number of innovations in its daily work: its subsidized housing programmes have enabled people with severe disabilities to start a new life in small family communities, its rehabilitation programmes have helped homeless people to find work and move into independent housing, and its telemedicine service in 35 municipalities has filled in for GPs in villages where the post had been vacant for years. The newly built social solar power plants will provide support for safe and environmentally friendly heating for families in the poorest villages. The Charity's Presence programme, developed over decades to uplift people living in squatter or destitute conditions, has resulted in the launch of the national Catching Up programme, targeting 300 of the poorest settlements, using the method developed by the Charity Service.

 

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, over 120,000 refugees have been assisted by the Relief Service in one of its programmes. The organisation's integration programme, aimed at families who remain permanently in Hungary, is unique in its work with refugees. The majority of the participants in the programme are Ukrainian and Latin American refugees who, within a year or a year and a half, will be able to look after themselves and live like Hungarian families.

 

Source: /VL MMLSZ MMLSZ

 

Photo: Beregsurány, reception centre for Ukrainian refugees, March 2022