The latest mission of the Afréka Foundation in Onitsha has been going on since the beginning of January; two weeks ago, András Csókay and his team arrived in Nigeria alongside Réka Fodor to perform neurosurgical operations, as well as two from Magyar Kurír to report on the events. On February 8, representatives of the Hungary Helps Program also visited Onitsha to ceremoniously hand over the donation for the expansion of the nursing school.
On Tuesday, Péter Kovács-Pifka, the general manager of the program, and Péter Zelei, the program manager, joined the missionaries, who were welcomed together by Archbishop Valerian Okeke of Onitsha.
Archbishop Okeke warmly welcomed the Hungarian guests in his diocese, which has the largest proportion of Catholics in the country. He thanked the mission for coming to Onitsha at the call of God's Holy Spirit to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to the people living here. He emphasized how important education is to him - they operate more than 400 schools - and health care.
There is currently a 300-person, three-year nursing training course on the premises of the S. Borromeo Hospital, which provides qualifications, but is not internationally accredited training: to achieve this, a four-year program is needed, which can be realized with the new building. Those who graduate as nurses will later receive a living wage for their work.
The new building is expected to be completed in two years, which will accommodate the fourth grade and more classrooms. The school is a boarding school, providing accommodation and food for all students, as many come from further afield to study here, and most of the time the families' houses do not have electricity or running water. Through the Afréka Foundation, many Hungarians already support the education of poorer students: currently 21 students receive scholarships, each with a tuition fee of $600 per year.
Father Basil Ekwunife, the Vice-Chancellor and Director of Health of the Archdiocese, said that the six-storey institution being built would be one of the largest nurse training facilities in the whole of Nigeria.
"It is thanks to Réka Fodor that the Hungary Helps Agency supports this project. The program provides support based on several aspects: the main goal is solidarity, so that the support of as many people as possible is realized through it and the project can sustain itself in the long term. Here, the general goals set by the Hungary Helps Program fully meet the needs of the local community. We like to take the support to a place where we ourselves can make sure that the Hungarian taxpayers' money goes to the best possible place. It is a big advantage to have reliable Hungarian people working on site, whom we can trust: in this project, we can be 100% sure of this because of the reliability and past of Réka Fodor and András Csókay," said Péter Kovács-Pifka at the site.
He added that what he saw confirmed him in this: the way healthcare and education are managed, the way the archbishop is constantly improving, also means a kind of guarantee. "The personal meeting gave me the opportunity to see for myself how good the support is. It is a confirmation for both parties that we did not just give support, but started a long-term cooperation with it. By representing the program at a diplomatic level, they feel even more that we care that this region is of particular importance to Hungary."
Zsuzsanna Thullner's article published in Magyar Kurír here .
Photos: Zita Merényi
