RAMALLAH – On Monday, June 28, 2021, Fr. Jamal Khader, General Director of the Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine (LPSP), met with H.E. Dr. Csaba Rada, Head of Mission of the Representative Office of Hungary in Ramallah, and his deputy Mr. Roland Végh, at the Schools General Administration office. The meeting was an opportunity to express gratitude for the generous financial support provided by the Hungarian Government, through its agency Hungary Helps, to the Patriarchate’s schools in Palestine and Jordan after the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020.
The financial relief of the Hungarian Government came in response to the COVID-19 appeal that Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa sent last year in a bid to help needy families of Latin Patriarchate Schools’ students, who were not able to pay their children’s school tuition fees.
Mr. Sami El-Yousef, Chief Executive Officer of the Latin Patriarchate, took part in the meeting and explained how the support of many generous donors, among whom is the Hungarian Government, had helped the Patriarchate’s institutions and schools to carry on its work and operations without interruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fr. Jamal Khader then talked about the importance of Parish schools whose mission is “to form human beings by taking care of all their needs” and not only providing them with academic education.
“Thanks to Hungary Helps, we were able to continue this mission,” said Fr. Jamal to Dr. Csaba. “Thank you for your closeness, support and concern for the school’s mission and the work that is being done here.”
For his part, Dr. Csaba talked about the start of the Hungarian Helps agency and its mission to help communities stay in their homeland and thus minimize migration. He also spoke of the collaboration with the Churches in the Holy Land in terms of the restoration works at the Churches of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulchre.
Education was also an important topic of discussion. “The History of Hungary and Palestine is connected through education,” said Dr. Csaba. “Palestine is one of two partners whom we worked with in the field of education and we will not stop doing that. This is not a one-time collaboration with the Latin Patriarchate Schools and the Christian Schools of Palestine.”
Since the 1970s, the Hungarian Government has been granting full scholarships to Palestinian students, many of them are Christians. More recently, an agreement was signed between the Government of Hungary and the Ministry of Higher Education of Palestine to provide 60 full scholarships for Palestinians to continue their studies at the Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral levels.
The meeting was also attended by Ms. Abeer Hanna, Executive Director of the Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine; Mr. Elias Bosheh, the Schools’ Human Resources and Procurement Officer and Mrs. Nicole Zreineh, the Patriarchate’s Project Development Office advisor.
The delegation eventually spent some time at the Holy Family Church, which Dr. Csaba visited ten years ago for the first time.
Source: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
