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Hungary helps Iraqi Christians with 145 million HUF in pharmaceutical aid

The Hungarian government hopes the provision of aid bears the message that “we are aware of the suffering that people living in the Middle East are having to endure, and especially Christians"

The Hungarian government has continued its 'Hungary Helps' initiative by contributing aid to Christian communities around the world.

According to government insiders, Hungary will finance pharmaceuticals for St. Joseph’s Clinic Erbil, the medical facility treating Iraqi Christians, for a period of six months at a cost of 145 million HUF (470,000 EUR).

Zoltán Balog, minister of Human Capacities, said that at the clinic, founded by the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil, refugees are treated free of charge by 12 doctors, some of whom are also themselves refugees. “120 chronic and 90 acute patients are treated every day, in addition to which the clinic also provides a further 2,000 people with medicine," he added.

According to goverment sources, the devastating effect Middle Eastern conflicts have had on Christian communities is what prompted the Hungarian government to take action.

“In 2014, 50,000 Christians from Mosul in Iraq and some 2,000 Christians from the Nineveh Plains fled to Erbil from armed Islamic State (ISIS) fighters, the vast majority of whom now live in the city’s Christian quarter of Ankawa. This district of the city has for all intents and purposes turned into a refugee camp, with Christian refugees housed in hangars and abandoned buildings," Balog said.

The minister stressed that he knows the assistance provided by the Hungarian government is “a drop in the ocean”, but hopes the provision of aid bears the message that “we are aware of the suffering that people living in the Middle East are having to endure, and especially Christians."