Hungary is an ardent supporter of World Humanitarian Day and shows its solidarity towards those suffering in crisis situations, it has been revealed today.
According to government sources, Hungary also offers international humanitarian assistance in accordance with its resources on a regular basis.
Currently some 130 million people are in humanitarian need around the world. These include distressed civilian populations, families, and refugees stricken by natural or man-made disaster or armed conflict.
Children are missing out on school, and the injured and sick lack medical treatment. Countless aid workers risk their lives every day for those in need. World Humanitarian Day on August 19 is dedicated to raising awareness of these people.
In 2015, Hungary's ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade provided some 435 million HUF for the purpose of supporting those in need, directly helping those concerned in cooperation with the family of organizations of the UN and the Red Cross, and with Hungarian civil society organizations.
Last year, the ministry spent most of its available humanitarian resources on relief to those involved in the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as on flood relief in the Western Balkans.
The ministry is continuing to support international organizations undertaking humanitarian tasks in 2016, but it has also provided help bilaterally: it provided emergency aid of 1.4 million HUF following the Ecuador earthquake.
The ministry also sent non-perishable food supplies and disinfectants worth the same amount to Skopje after the devastating storm in Macedonia. Through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the National Directorate General for Disaster Management had 18.8 million HUF at its disposal for relief following the storm.
The purpose of rasing the awareness of World Humanitarian Day is to raise funds.
International organizations, aid organizations, relief teams and activists work to help populations hit by crisis, and their work receives millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money every year; yet the gap between their needs and the resources available continues to grow. This gap currently amounts to 15 billion USD.
The problem, however, is not purely budget-related: the operation of the humanitarian relief system must be reviewed. In May 2016 the United Nations presided over the World Humanitarian Summit, at which states and other stakeholders providing humanitarian assistance committed to establishing a better functioning system.
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