With the closure of Funata, the symbolic institution that has “stayed here since the heroic age” reminiscent of the initial efforts to care for the capital’s homeless will cease to exist, and residents will soon be able to move to a state-of-the-art facility in Oyigboda. (About the organization’s history and current outcomes of homeless care here You can read in detail.)
In addition to invited guests, leaders and volunteers of the Malta Charitable Service, a large number of homeless people who regularly visit the night shelter were also present at the event on Tuesday. Among them, Joseph Maglatt, for example, has repeatedly spent his nights here over the past ten years, often leaving here for work in the morning. “This place gave me a home, friends and good people who treated me well. When I was 45, that was a turning point in my life, because when I got here, I could have died,” he said when we asked him about his memories.
The ceremony began with a recitation by Imre Tsuga. On several occasions, the actor performed for those spending the night on the train, this time for Attila Joseph. Awareness He recited his poem. Then Annette Bush, the city’s deputy mayor in charge of the humanities, said: “I come to you because I want to thank you for the tremendous work and service you have provided to people for whom perhaps no one would have done this in the last 30 years.”
Father Imre Kuzma, founding president of the Malta Charitable Trust, addressed those entering the train as fellow passengers. “The trip is fun when we travel with people who are important to them,” said the 83-year-old monk, who regularly offered midnight mass here at Christmas.
The greatest gift on this journey together is that we met each other and God.”
Addressing the homeless, among other things, he said: “On this train, the Hungarian Charitable Service in Malta has prepared for you every day the gift of togetherness.” He added: “Thank you when I saw your smile and your joy, because you are never alone here.”
Sociologist Zoltan Lackner first remembers when he was appointed government commissioner for social crisis management programs in 1990 and asked for help from the Malta Charitable Service, how the new social welfare system was born, and how he later brought his undergraduate students to the school. Practice with countless personalities to conduct life journey interviews with the people who live here.
Miklos Viksi, vice-president of the Malta Charitable Service, recalls a memory that has stuck deep in his mind since his first Christmas here: “Late one evening, I was talking to a young man in one of the first cars, sitting on one of the lower bunks. He said he didn’t miss his own apartment; But he couldn’t buy anyone a gift. I quickly indicated that I would help him, and he explained: There was no one to buy it from. So the problem is not that you have to lie in that bed, but that you have no reason to get out of it. I didn’t think about “That was before. He who does not have someone to love has no purpose.” He added: When he bid them farewell, the boy said that they had eighteen years between them, the eighteen that one of them lived in his family and the other in an institution. “That night meant more in my life than college or any other meeting.”
Balazs Kinesi, who ran the organization for many years, recalls a similar memory: “One of the former homeless people met a lady, and they moved in together. And then, when we met, he told me about his personal problems. I asked him: Why don’t you move out of there?” He replied: “You don’t know what “It is a feeling of belonging to someone.” He also grew up under state care.
Balazs Kinesi also said: “When one gate closes, another opens.” With this, he referred to the new institution that will be opened soon where he will also work. “I’m confident that what we find inside the other portal will be better than this. Every day brings new and fresh opportunities, and you have to take advantage of them.”
The celebration ended with Valentine’s Day and casual conversation.
Source and FOtto: Malta Charitable Service
Hungarian Post
