A report by Péter Cseri in the February 16 edition of the Hungarian daily Népszabadság: “Egyre többen csúsznak át a szegénységből a nyomorba”

The report is an interview with the Miklós Vecsei, vice president of the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta: “The poor are increasingly sliding into abject poverty”

According to Mr. Vecsei, childhood poverty in Hungary today is increasing at an alarming rate, noting that poverty is manageable because there is some hope left for improvement, but abject poverty is destructive bacause sustaining goals and relationships vanish and hopelesness takes hold.

He also noted that he doesn’t want to participate in the poverty data wars and much less on arguing which government was better or worse in dealing with a pervasive problem, only that effective action is needed in a dire emergency that he compares to a forest fire.

Mr. Vecsei also commented that anti-poverty programs sometimes miss the mark because of the poor evaluation of the actual needs, citing the example of a sewage system built for a Roma community lacking running water. 

At the end of the interview he cites Pope Francis: “Could we live placidly knowing how much suffering and misery surrounds us? And he adds:“that is a decision to be made for each of us”.