History

We launched an immediate aid program and fundraising to help the earthquake victims in Nepal. Through ACT Alliance – our umbrella organization – we provided the people in need with foodstuff, drinking water, clothing and blanket. The main focus of the subsequent reconstruction program was the establishment of 250 temporary school buildings that we supported with the help of our domestic partners. 

In order to put emphasis on the prevention partner violence, we launched a nationwide campaign entitled ‘See the signs!

Owing to the project entitled ‘Pleasant Help – Project Sporon’ capacities of our Ygen Human Resource Center have significantly increased: we provide help already in four offices to the unemployed through job-seeking days organized in large cities and phone counseling.

HIA has announced children’s month entitled ’Carefree childhood’ for the first time in May.  Main objective of the program series and fundraising was to draw attention to the work carried out in HIA’s temporary family shelters due to which hundreds of needy children each year can have safe-at-home experience and may get a chance for a happier childhood. 

In the Philippines we provided humanitarian assistance to victims of the largest typhoon ever recorded. In addition to delivery of the Hungarian emergency aid, our staff members were also involved in the coordination of the international aid program of ACT Alliance.

During the unprecedented Danube flooding HIA-Hungary helped with 500 volunteers, vehicles, pumps and provision of evacuated people and embankment workers in 23 affected settlements. Following the floods significant assistance was provided to 111 flood-affected families in Dunabogdány, Szob and Dunaszekcső in reconstruction of their property.

After the spring floods we continuously assisted the evacuated and later returned dwellers in more than 34 settlements of the country: emergency assistance was provided to 10 thousand beneficiaries. During the rehabilitation phase we implemented reconstruction of homes of 1200 flood-affected families and organized personal property replacement. 

Following the earthquake that ruined the impoverished country’s capital and its surroundings we took part in the emergency assistance and later in the post-disaster rehabilitation through renovation and equipping of two modern schools. 

A new institution was created in the settlement of Kastélyosdombó to provide stopgap assistance to addicts and their family members in Somogy county.

An independent Aid Center was established for management of aid requests arriving from all parts of the country. The institution provides immediate assistance customized to needs of the needy ones following individual judgment of each application. 

We arrived to the spot right after the unprecedented industrial catastrophe and provided significant assistance to the affected victims. Later, in the frame of our multi-year extensive program, we played a major role in reconstruction of Kolontár.

A humanitarian action was launched in Gaza to assist those affected by the Israeli-Palestinian war which broke out in December 2008: the packages with non-perishable foodstuffs provided immediate, life-saving assistance to more than 2000 individuals. 

Our Miskolc institution was appointed as National Methodological Center. The institution’s tasks included professional support for the 120 temporary shelters working in the country, coordination and effective promotion of their interests at government level.

Our institution which received minor asylum seekers, refuges and those with subsidiary protection status operated in Bicske until 2011. We provided safe shelter for children and youths accommodated here and ensured full board, education and supervision for them.  

The two-year long program has been HIA-Hungary’s biggest awareness-raising project so far. In the frame of the project, several achievements realized addressing a total of 10 000 students: a nationwide roadshow, exhibition, students’ competition, issue of a publication and a unique virtual exhibition available also through internet. 

In the frame of the EU food-aid program 400 tons of foodstuff were distributed among the neediest Hungarian families. We have been able to help hundreds of thousands of families ever since thanks to this program. 

We launched out-of-school development and training for disadvantaged children from EU funds in our institutions in Olaszliszka and Debrecen.

During the crisis in Lebanon we assisted those escaping to Syria and later those who returned to the war-torn country.

Our institution in Miskolc has become a Regional Crisis Management Center. It means that the center provides shelter, care and assistance to single women and their children who are forced to leave their homes due to domestic violence. 

During 2005 several floods hit Romania. Following the disasters we took part in the emergency assistance and later in the reconstruction of the affected settlements. 

One of our most significant international aid actions was the assistance to victims of the South Asian tsunami. We arrived to the spot as the first Hungarian agency to provide immediate help following needs assessment. In addition to emergency assistance we played a significant role in reconstruction works as well. 

In response to the crisis in Iraq we elaborated a long-term program; in the frame of the program we contributed to medicine supply of the needy population and also reconstructed a school.

Following the Central-European floods breaking centuries-old records, we implemented large-scale aid programs including reconstruction of private houses, schools and kindergartens in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

We have established a new center in Soroksár with the aim of helping addicts living in Budapest and Pest county.  The Addictology Center and Daytime Institution for Addicts provides comprehensive support to those suffering from different addictions.

Our love.hunger campaign as a part of our national fundraising campaign was launched during the Advent period for the first time; the campaign intended to draw the attention of the public to the increased necessity of everyday assistance to our fellow creatures living under difficult circumstances and being excluded from society.

We assisted victims of flooding of river Tisza through a large scale aid program both in Hungary and Transcarpathia immediately after the disaster and also during the reconstruction works.

We have established a new institution to provide complex care for the homeless of Gyula and the surrounding micro-region. We have been offering comprehensive support to the homeless in our Temporary Shelter, Daytime and Night Shelters ever since.

We created a new institution in district 13 where overall assistance is provided to those whose lives are made difficult by some kind of addiction.

The ADVANCE Advocacy and Development Center has been established in Beregovo by HIA-Hungary and the Aid Organization of Swiss Lutheran Churches. The center aims to implement social, educational, informative and humanitarian programs.

The currently still operating Temporary Family Shelter was established with the help of a tender invited by the competent ministry and HIA-Hungary’s foreign partners. The center provides shelter for families facing crisis.    

We founded our first institution that provides assistance specifically to addicts; during the activities special attention is paid to youths, young adults and prevention of addictions.   

Anikó Lévai has been persistently working as our organization’s goodwill ambassador since 1998. She took part in providing assistance to affected victims following disasters that hit our country and supported to the needy ones and in our aid programs in the Carpathian Basin. 

We took over a new task that originally belongs to the scope of local governments and launched a Child Welfare Service in Soroksár whose main task is to monitor vulnerable children and their families living in the district and eliminate their vulnerability.  

We announced our fundraising campaign for the first time on the first Sunday of Advent; it has become a tradition since then. The funds collected were and still are spent on support to children and families every year.  

We played a significant role in rehabilitation works and development following the Yugoslav war: we had been implementing large-scale projects in the states of Former Yugoslavia for 10 years in a total value of more than EUR 4 million.  

The home with the capacity to accommodate 100 refugees provided safe shelter for those escaping from the Yugoslav War until 2000.

Hungarian Reformed, Lutheran, and the Methodist, Orthodox and Unitarian churches founded Hungarian Interchurch Aid to provide professional assistance to those in need both in and outside the country as the outstretched arms of churches.