William Penn Life, 2005 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-12-01 / 12. szám
Branching Out with Endre Csornán Children in Need A fact-finding mission to Central Europe uncovers the plight of many of the regions young THIS PAST SUMMER I was given an assignment by the WPA Board of Directors to travel to Central Europe. The purpose of this trip was to visit children's institutions which were urgently in need of aid. For some reason, God led me to Transcarpathia, or—as it is called by Hungarians—Kárpátalja. For the sake of our readers who are not familiar with Transcarpathia, let me simply put it this way: The Carpathian Basin was an integral part of Hungary for a thousand years. When the peace treaties concluding World War I took effect, the territory of the Basin was split up and Hungary dismembered. We can never forget that, for a thousand years, the Carpathian Basin was used as a road of aggression aimed at Western Europe by warlike Asian nations. It was the Magyar people who always protected Western Europe from the powerful invaders. It was to this region that I journeyed with my wife and several other companions. Thank God the border crossing from Hungary to the Ukraine and back was pre-arranged. Otherwise, we would have spent hours waiting on either side of the border. As soon as we crossed the border from Hungary into the Ukraine, we noticed the differences between the two countries, especially the condition of the highways and buildings, both desperately in need of repair. On the day of our arrival in the Ukraine, we met with representatives of Stichting AK, a group based in Holland which founded the Nagydobronyi Irgalmas Samaritánus Children's Home. The home was built in 1995. Maintenance, utilities, wages and other expenses for the home are paid for by Stichting AK and the Reformed churches of Kárpátalja. Children living at the Nagydobronyi Irgalmas Samitánus Children’s Home in Kárpátalja. We were quite impressed by the cleanliness and orderliness of the facility. The home accepts only girls ages 2 to 12. Religion and nationality are no barriers to admittance. However, only the Hungarian language is used at the home. Out of the 67 unwanted children at the home, 32 were abandoned by both parents. The handicapped or disabled children are taught in the home, while the others attend public schools. We were told that, in recent years, the Roman Catholic and Reformed churches have reopened Hungarian elementary and high schools, and that the standard of education at these church-run schools is much higher than that at the public schools. To be continued next month. Endre Csornán holds the home’s youngest resident, a 2-year-old girl whose twin sister was killed by their mother. William Penn Life, December 2005 3
