Washington DC – The Hungarian American Coalition is providing $10,000 to assist the civilian population in Sub-Carpathia (western Ukraine). The donation, covered by the Coalition’s Kárpátalja Flood Relief Fund, was approved by the Coalition’s Executive Committee on April 17.
Due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the local currency – the hryvnia – has collapsed, leading to severe price increases and desperate poverty. An average pension, for example, amounts to less than $1 a day. Inflation is such that most stores no longer bother to post prices. Yet the Ukrainian government has frozen salaries and pensions until the end of the year, and plans to increase the price of gas and electricity to international levels.
Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian minority, numbering approximately 150,000, is concentrated in the region of Sub-Carpathia (Kárpátalja), near the Hungarian border. Given the disastrous economic conditions, ethnic Hungarians and other nationalities in the region are in need of financial support and material goods if they are to have a chance at enduring the crisis in their homeland.
In neighboring Hungary, aid groups and churches have mobilized to provide funding to the communities in need. (Food assistance is not feasible, due to border controls and the insurmountable red tape involved in getting shipments over the border.)
The Coalition’s donation will be split between two organizations:
• the Kárpátalja aid initiative of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, spearheaded by its President Imre Kozma and by Hungary’s First Lady Anita Herczegh
• the Hungarian Scout Association of Sub-Carpathia
The Coalition encourages its members to consider helping this worthy cause. We recommend the following organizations: