The government’s Hungary Helps program has assisted 500,000 people worldwide during the past five years.
State Secretary Tristan Azbej said the program not only helped persecuted people stay in their homeland, but “sometimes it was successful in reversing migration”. He noted that some 1,000 families returned to Syria with Hungarian assistance, adding that Syria’s Christian community, which used to number 2.3 million people before the civil war, has now shrunken to less than one million. Azbej said that although there was no more fighting over the larger part of Syria, residents suffered from an economic collapse and deep poverty. Many have left the country but local Christians cling to their homeland, which is among the oldest sites of Christianity.
Photo credit: Facebook/Hungary Helps - Magyarország segít