Budapest residents organize aid for refugees through social media

Refugees from Syria and Afghanistan transiting through Hungary have become an everyday sight for Budapest residents, especially those living close to the Keleti railway station and major squares in the 7th and 8th Districts. Police seem to be focused on removing them as quickly as possible from these areas (out of sight, out of mind), but a growing civilian ‘army’ of Hungarians are using Facebook very effectively to provide the asylum-seekers with daily meals and aid. One such group, of roughly 130 members, has a number of its volunteers linked to the Hungarian Left Party (Balpárt) and I’ve been impressed with their determination and high levels of organization. While in the early days of this refugee crisis, the new arrivals could sometimes count on random acts of kindness, over the past couple of weeks, these efforts have taken on a more structured form. Now, refugees can count on meals, at specific times and locations in the Hungarian capital, from groups of grassroots volunteers who organize themselves and everything needed for their outreach using social media.

The group linked to the Hungarian Left Party started off by serving daily meals to 40-50 refugees in the 8th District’s Köztársaság tér, or Republic Square in English. (Shortly after coming to power, the Fidesz government had changed the square’s name to honour the late Pope John Paul II, but the activists quite deliberately ignore this and continue to refer to it by its traditional name.) Police, however, began removing refugees from the square, so now they tend to congregate around neighbouring Alföldi Street, located one block away. Here, the group of activists have served meals to closer to 200 people. Additionally, a second and larger activist group which calls itself Keleti Migration Aid prepares food for 250 people each day.

One of the posters being used by this group of Budapest activists.

One of the posters being used by this group of Budapest activists.

In addition to the activists serving the areas in the 7th and 8th Districts around the Keleti railway station, there are groups of activist Hungarians that focus on the Western (Nyugati) and Southern (Déli) stations as well, where one will find smaller clusters of refugees. As well, there are a handful of locally-run community spaces with very limited resources that have opened their doors to the refugees. One such space is called Klub Béla, located in the 8th District, which is described by some as an “independent anarcho-communist club” and where people from all backgrounds organize random pot lucks for each other and lively discussion groups. The anarchist club now offers shelter to one refugee family each night and is equipped with diapers, colouring books for kids, as well as food.

The group linked to the Hungarian Left Party seems especially effective in attracting the right, targeted donations. Anyone who works in soup kitchens knows that without asking the community for specific ingredients, you will end up receiving lots of random items and food that can’t really be used when serving meals to hundreds of people. This refugee aid group prepares between 200 and 300 sandwiches a day, distributed around the Keleti railway station. They often use egg plant, zucchini, carrots and cream cheese as the sandwich filling. And they usually offer a piece of fresh fruit alongside the sandwich, such as a banana, an apple or some melon.

On days when the activists prepare hot meals, the staple ingredients are beans, potatoes, carrots, rice and sauerkraut. Each hot meal is served with a slice of bread and a piece of fresh fruit, or a slice of halva. One of the volunteers printed 1,000 stickers that simply read “no pork,” and have an illustration of a pig crossed out, to put on the meals being prepared for the primarily Muslim refugees.

I am very impressed by how organized these activists have become and how they have managed to create a structured  social service program from the bottom up, with meager resources and almost exclusively through food drives organized online. They circulate spreadsheets and calendars using Google documents, where volunteers are assigned to serve and/or prepare meals each day of the week, to produce sandwiches in the afternoon, or to transport bread, dinner rolls and other food items.

Afghan and Syrian refugees arrive in Hungary by the hundreds each day. Photo: Molnár Edvárd/MTI.

Afghan and Syrian refugees arrive in Hungary by the hundreds each day. Photo: Edvárd Molnár/MTI.

To give our readers an idea of how much food they go through on an average day, I can share that for a hot meal they normally use 2 kg of oil, 2 kg of flour, 12 kg of green peas, 12 kg of lentils and 8 kg of beans. For sandwiches, they would normally need 20 kg of bread, as their basic ingredient, along with 2 kg of cheese spreads and other fillings. As well, around 5 to 6 kg of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are used each day.

Hungary’s Orbán government is deeply worried about its image abroad and about people critical of the authoritarian regime tarnishing that image through any critical observation and feedback. One critique made in public about a policy of the Orbán regime, and you will be labelled an enemy of the nation. But the people who are doing more than anyone to soften the callous image created by the government’s unjust policies and its lack of any compassion for refugees and those on the margins of society in general, are the volunteers and activists who are donating, preparing and serving meals each day to Syrians, Afghans and other refugees transiting through Hungary. And doing so in the shadow of iron fences built to keep refugees out and police whose orders are to make them disappear.

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