Hungarians raising funds for Hungarian volunteers fighting for Ukraine
More and more people in Hungary are teaming up on Social Media to help hundreds of soldiers of Hungarian origin who are defending Ukraine. Several Hungarian Facebook groups are organising fundraising events to deliver donation packages for the Transcarpathian volunteers fighting on the front line.
How it all started
The fundraising campaign started at the end of October thanks to a Facebook group run by Hungarian civilians that focuses on discussing law enforcement and military issues. Hvg.hu contacted Balázs Trautmann, a member of the group, who told the news site why they had started the campaign. As he said, they saw a post on 23 October showing Hungarians who fought on the Ukrainian side, celebrating the victory with a Hungarian flag. This post had such an impact on them that the community immediately started a conversation on how they could help.
Then, a group member exchanged messages with Fegyir Sándor, a soldier of Hungarian origin serving at the front. He asked Sándor what they needed. After all, they did not want to send the soldiers unnecessary things, Trautmann recalled.
As it turns out, Sándor, the volunteer soldier from Transcarpathia, is a professor at the Uzhhorod National University. Many readers may be familiar with his name, as a few months ago, he became known for giving online lessons from the trenches to his students. You can read our article about his story HERE.
Trautmann added that he was shocked to see that more than HUF 1 million (EUR 2,510) had been raised in just over a day when the fundraising campaign was first launched. And, as a result, they were able to send some extra food supplies to the front, along with the high-powered external batteries the soldiers had requested.
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From a conversation in a Facebook group to a “mass movement”
However, there are other Facebook groups too, in which members have come up with the idea of helping the Hungarian soldiers in Ukraine. The admin of a cybersecurity Facebook group with around 2,000 members told 444.hu how they found out about the fundraising campaign in October.
According to the admin, the war in Ukraine and its cybersecurity aspects were common topics in the group. Therefore, by October, they had already reached the point in their conversations that
they should somehow help the Ukrainians who are facing winter with a destroyed electricity system,
the news site notes.
They then heard about the fundraising and quickly decided to join the event. In practice, this meant that when Sándor indicated what they needed at the military base, this group also organised a separate fundraiser, with a separate account. However, the items purchased were then delivered with the help of the main organiser group.
As the monetary donations quickly increased, it was possible to deliver a second supply to the battalion. This donation now included, among other things, polar sweaters and warm socks for the cold weather – at the request of the soldiers, of course.
In addition, two other communities have also joined in the last few days, raising millions more in the donation account. Thanks to their prompt initiative, it is only a matter of time before they can prepare a third donation package for those fighting in Ukraine.
Read alsoTranscarpathian Hungarian soldier from the front spoke on Hungarian TV at midnight
Source: hvg.hu, 444.hu