Ferenc Puskás-Sir Alex Ferguson Trophy

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The Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Sponsor of the Year Trophy goes to the company judged to have made the most significant contribution to the work of the Robert Burns International Foundation during the course of the previous year.

Stewart Miller, a sports fan from Argyll, Scotland, had been so moved by the death of the legendary Hungarian footballer Ferenc Puskás that he wanted to present something to his widow, Erzsébet, in honour of the great man. This is his story:

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I am like many people on this planet a fanatical football fan. The death of Ferenc Puskás evoked mixed emotions amongst everybody with a love of the great game. Whilst we were all deeply saddened by the loss of one of the sport’s greatest ambassadors, we can also take some comfort from the great memories he has bestowed on us.

My own introduction to the legendary Puskás was via my father and grandfather. Both were present at Hampden Park (Glasgow) on 18 May 1950, to witness what has been recognised as one of the greatest football games ever. On that day Puskás and Real Madrid showed the world football perfection, by winning the European Cup in front of over 130,000 fans, defeating Eintracht Frankfurt by seven goals to three. Puskás scored four goals. Though I was not even a twinkle in my father’s eye in 1960, I was to hear stories of this marvellous football game for many years to come. Ferenc Puskás achieved greatness. He scored 511 goals in 533 appearances in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues. He also scored 83 goals in 84 international matches for Hungary – a strike rate unmatched in international football (and footballs were very much heavier in those days!). On two occasions, in 1953 and 1954, Puskás and the national Hungary side also demolished England, and in the process became the first overseas team to beat England at Wembley. This feat also won the hearts of the Scottish nation.

As a tribute to this legend and truly outstanding character, I have commissioned the production of a very unique gift. A highly skilled craftsman located in the north of Scotland has lovingly created a hand-made copper football. The football is of the highest quality it is creative, and it is unique – just like Puskás. This gift is for the family of Ferenc Puskás. Please accept this gift from the football fans of Scotland We love Ferenc Puskás. He will never be forgotten – his football exploits will be told for many generations to come – in his native Hungary, in Scotland, and all over the world.

Stewart Miller
Football Fan
Scotland

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Stewart wrote to the Hungarian embassy in London, and the news eventually made its way to Zoltán Magyar, the Robert Burns International Foundation Founder.

Zoltán suggested that the gift could perhaps be used in a different way, and Mrs Puskás agreed that it could be used as an annual sponsor’s award. In 2007, Sir Alex Ferguson became the Honorary President of the RBIF, and the trophy now bears the names of the two footballing legends.

You can read all about the previous winners of the trophy in the separate articles on our Sponsors of the Year, which you can find here.

2018 Budapest Burns Supper

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Just a few weeks after the festivities around Christmas and New Year, people are always ready for a party again, which makes the timing of the traditional Budapest Burns Supper perfect. The 21st annual event was held as ever in the amazing Ballroom of the Corinthia Hotel Budapest on 27 January 2018.

As a Burns Supper there are many traditional elements, such as the Address to the Haggis, performed by the lead piper Rab Tait in his own inimitable way. Guests are also treated to Scotland’s national dish of haggis, neeps and tatties as a starter, with many asking for more! Over the years, DHL as a sponsor have brought over almost one and a half tonnes of haggis from Scotland to Budapest for the Burns Supper.

This year guests were entertained by the fabulous singing and poetry recital of Sophie Craig, a 16-year-old girl from Alloway, who performed at Burns’ Cottage on the 25th before jumping on a plane to perform in Budapest as well. A real talent!

The Budapest Burns Suppers have been growing and growing recently, and almost 350 people attended this year, a record turnout. The superb venue provides a great setting for some serious fundraising in the course of the evening.

Overall more than HUF 13 million was raised, which will be donated to the 2nd Department of Paediatrics in Tűzoltó utca, the Péterfy Children’s Hospital, and other projects to be announced over the coming months by the Robert Burns International Foundation.

Sponsor of the Year was Generali Foundation, a huge thanks to them, but the event can never be held without the support of our regular sponsors too:

Gold Sponsors: Corinthia Hotel, Budapest Airport, FirstMed Centers and Woodbrook Wealth.
Silver Sponsors: Qatar Airways, DHL and Diageo.
Bronze Sponsors: Theodora Water, CBRE and Inter Relocation.

Click here to see all the photos from the Burns Supper, and we are grateful to photographer Russell Skidmore for his voluntary help in recording all the great memories from the event.

The organisers would also like to thank WhiskyNet, Arran Distillery, CocaCola, Dreher, Volvo, Szent Donát Winery Babiczki Winery, Zwack, Nespresso, as well as all those who helped with the raffle and the auction.

With so many people turning up, make sure you like the RBIF Facebook page to be sure of hearing all the details about next year’s event in good time, and to find out what projects the RBIF will be supporting throughout 2018!

The Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF) is supported by the British Ambassador to Hungary and the Hungarian Ambassador to the UK. The Honorary President of the foundation is Sir Alex Ferguson, former manager of Manchester United football club. In the last 20 years the organisation has raised several hundred thousand euros to help sick and underprivileged children.

Contact: [email protected]

Charity Fundraising

The Robert Burns International Foundation raises charity funds throughout the year, though it comes into strongest focus around the Burns Supper. But given what it commits to do, raising the money is as nothing if it is not spent.

Professor Dr György Fekete, the former Director of the II Paediatric Department of Semmelweis University in Budapest, acts as medical adviser to the RBIF, helping sift through the many applications for support to find and select the most appropriate and deserving projects.

The Hungarian health care system has been underfunded for years, since long before the global economic crisis began to tighten purse strings. As a result, donations from foundations, private sponsors and organisations are often the only ways open to hospitals in need of new equipment. The only alternatives are official Hungarian or EU research projects and grants, but the process of accessing the money is complex and time consuming. “Donations are easier and faster sources, because they do not require such a long administrative and bureaucratic processes as the applications for grants,” the Professor says.

“Since all the instruments serve basic, every-day medical needs, mostly important in the emergency and intensive-care treatment of ill children, these gifts have helped to save lives in many cases,” Fekete insists.

“Hungarian doctors and patients know and are very thankful for all of these donations, being aware of the difference to their work, on the one hand, and their improved chances for being healthy again on the other. In short, all the hospitals that have been supported over the years are now able to offer a higher level of medical care than before the donation, and this fact is very crucial for the benefit for our young patients!”

Thank you: Professor Dr György Fekete speaking at the 2011
Budapest Burns Supper. Photo courtesy of Tamás Rajna,
www.imagesbyrajna.com

The RBIF applies strict criteria before it agrees to pay out any monies. Hospital units must prove their need for the equipment and give guarantees the money will be used solely for the purposes outlined.

By Robin Marshall

Piping and drumming at the Parliament

In January 2018 the RBIF’s pipers and drummers accepted an invitation from the Hungarian Parliamentary Guard to play at Hungary’s iconic National Assembly building, the Hungarian Parliament. It was a genuine honour for the band to be asked, and it proved popular with the tourists as well!

The pipers and drummers were:

Rab Tait, David Proudfoot, Michael Gray, Grant Munro, Michael Rutherford, Steven Brown, Richard Fairnie and Barry Wilson.

2017 Budapest Burns Supper

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20th Burns Supper: Money raised to help sick children exceeds HUF 8 million

At the 20th anniversary gala and Scottish cultural event of the Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF) on 21 January, donations raised for the healthcare projects embraced by the foundation amounted to more than ever before.

This year’s 20th Anniversary Budapest Burns Supper – not unlike in previous years – was held for its exclusive guests in the grandiose ballroom of the Corinthia Hotel with a typical dose of Scottish culture.

Following the celebratory toast of Iain Lindsay, British Ambassador to Hungary, Zoltán Magyar founder of the RBIF and President of the Hungarian Scottish Society, and Douglas Arnott, Chairman of the RBIF Curatorium, awarded PriceWaterhouseCoopers the Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Award, given annually to the sponsor of the year. The award was named after the legendary captain of the Golden Team, Ferenc Puskás, and the honorary president of the foundation, Sir Alex Ferguson, former manager of Manchester United, and is always given to the company that was the most outstanding supporter of the foundation that year. This spring, Ferguson will personally hand the award over to Nick Kós, managing director of PwC, at a Manchester United football match at Old Trafford.

The Burns Supper, full of original Scottish culinary delicacies, is organised annually in honour of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. This year, besides the Scottish pipers and dancers, and the indispensable haggis with its special ceremony, folk dancers from Transylvania added some Hungarian spice to the event.

The Budapest Burns Supper is unique in the sense that the money gathered from entrance fees, the raffle and the auction of products, services offered by sponsors is spent entirely on charity by the Robert Burns International Foundation. At this year’s event this amounted to HUF 8 million, from which the foundation will buy medical equipment for the neonatal unit of the Péterfy Children’s Hospital, the 2nd Department of Paediatrics in Tűzoltó utca, Budapest, and Miskolc Hospital, as well as supporting the Zabar Nursery School in Nógrád county. The foundation raised more than HUF 12 million for healthcare institutions in 2016.

For photos and videos please click here:

Sponsor of the Year: PwC Hungary
Gold sponsors: Budapest Airport, Corinthia Hotel, Deloitte Hungary, Generali Insurance
Silver sponsors: KPMG, Qatar Airways, Diageo, DHL, Woodbrook Wealth
Bronze sponsors: Toray Water AG

The Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF) is supported by the British Ambassador to Hungary and the Hungarian Ambassador to the UK. The Honorary President of the foundation is Sir Alex Ferguson, former manager of Manchester United football club. In the last 20 years the organisation has raised several hundred thousand euros to help sick and underprivileged children.

Contact: [email protected]

2016 Budapest Burns Supper

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19th Burns Supper: more than HUF 5 million raised for premature babies and sick children

At the largest charity event of the Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF), the traditional Scottish Burns Supper held on 23 January 2016, the guests raised more than HUF 5 million for the child health-care projects earmarked by the Foundation – this year including the Neonatal Department of the Péterfy Sándor Hospital and the 2nd Department of Paediatrics in Tűzoltó utca.

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The Budapest Burns Supper is one of the highlights of the ball season, attended by executives, ambassadors, business-owners and groups of friends. At the evening demonstrating facets of Scottish culture, the guests were entertained by a children’s choir, a live bagpipe performance, a young opera singer and Scottish country dancers, before being able to learn different Scottish dances themselves after the dinner.

Zoltán Magyar, founder of the RBIF and the Hungarian-Scottish Society, along with Douglas Arnott, Chairman of the RBIF Curatorium handed over the Sponsor of the Year trophy, the Puskás Ferenc – Sir Alex Ferguson Award, to Deloitte. The award bears the name of the legendary Hungarian footballer and captain of the “Golden Team”, as well as the Honorary President of the RBIF, former manager of Manchester United. The trophy is awarded to the most outstanding supporter of the Foundation over the year. Sir Alex Ferguson will hand over the trophy in person to Gerard Lucey, CFO of Deloitte, at a home Manchester United game at Old Trafford this autumn. The Loyal Toast was given by Caitlin Jones, Chargé d’Affaires at the British Embassy in Budapest to the 315 guests. As a special guest of the evening, György Szöllősi, representing the Puskás Ferenc Institute, handed over a copy of the Puskás biography to the Sponsor of the Year. This third edition with a foreword by Ferguson was published in December 2015.

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What is special about the Budapest Burns Supper is that the funds raised from tickets, the raffle as well as products and services offered by sponsors for the are donated in their entirety by the Robert Burns International Foundation for charitable purposes. This amounted to more than HUF 5 million at this year’s event, which the RBIF will be using to buy special equipment for the Neonatal Department at the Péterfy Sándor Hospital, and helping to fund the renovation of the operatingtheatre and related facilities at the 2nd Department of Paediatrics in Tűzoltó utca. In 2015 a further HUF 10 million was donated to these two institutions for medical equipment.

Photos and videos, click here

2015 Budapest Burns Supper

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The Grand Ballroom of the Corinthia Hotel Budapest hosted the 18th Annual Budapest Burns Supper on 24 January 2015. Around 300 guests packed into the ballroom for an evening of great entertainment with fine food, fine wines, and fine whiskies.

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Everyone was able to enjoy live pipe band music featuring world champion musicians, the traditional Address to the Haggis by Rab Tait, the lead piper, a choir performance by children from the Austrian-Hungarian Europaschule, and a Scottish country dancing display.

The chef at the Corinthia Hotel put together a superb menu including haggis flown in fresh from Inverness, Scotland. A night of Scottish culture and entertainment would not be complete without suitable refreshments, and we were fortunate to enjoy the support of Dreher, Diageo, Zwack Hungary and WhiskyNet, who manned the whisky-tasting bar again with a selection of malts from all round Scotland, while Vargabor and Hangácsi és Fia provided top-quality wines to accompany the meal.

The Puskás Ferenc – Sir Alex Ferguson Trophy was presented to the RBIF’s Sponsor of the Year, the Mercedes-Benz / Evobus, represented by General Manager Ingo Fröhlich. The trophy will be presented again by the RBIF’s Honorary President Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford, Manchester in April 2015.DSC_4583

The raffle prizes (first prize: two tickets with Turkish Airlines anywhere in the world) and the auction items were very popular, raising over 5 million HUF on the night, a fantastic achievement, and this money will be used over the year to sponsor the projects designated by the Foundation.

As ever we are grateful to all our sponsors who make this event possible.

Burns Suppers

TK2

TK2: PATIENCE, LOVE, DISCIPLINE HELP KEEP DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN IN SCHOOL

Sam isn’t doing too well at school.  But without the support of TK2 he wouldn’t be in school at all.

The 14-year-old is having to repeat grade six because he didn’t show up to re-sit an exam – one which his tutors at Blythswood’s after-school programme believe he could have passed if he tried.

At TK2, Sam has proven that he has real ability, especially in acting, dance, choreography and music.  “He has played major roles in all our musicals so far,” says Adrian Popa, director of Blythswood’s Talita Kum project.  “His drums teacher says that he could easily play in a band.”

Sam is the youngest of five children from a low-income family who share three small rooms in a former army barracks lacking even the most basic amenities.  From the day he started school he had difficulty fitting in: his bad language and physical violence caused frequent disruption.

“Even Blythswood’s social workers thought of giving up on him,” Adrian admits.  “Only their patience, love, discipline and determination have kept him from dropping out of school.

“Sam is still causing trouble in and out of school but is a totally different child at Talita Kum, respectful and trying to get ready for the next day.”

Social workers from TK2 sometimes visit him at school and sit in on his classes.  “This provides a significant incentive for Sam to behave,” says Adrian.  “The teachers would love this to happen more often.”

Adrian is in no doubt that without the incentive provided by TK2 Sam would have dropped out of school completely.  Admission is conditional on having attended classes that day.  “Sometimes he goes missing for a day or two and gets into bad company.  But he comes back and admits he was wrong and promises to be stronger next time.

“Every day he is torn between what he learns with us and what he thinks he has to do and say to please his friends.”

TK2 extends Talita Kum’s provision of nutrition, education and cultural activities to children aged 11-14, giving them the support they need to continue their schooling, despite disadvantages at home.

Hospital Appeal 2011

1) Mezőtúr Városi Kórház (Mezőtúr Town Hospital) Paediatric Unit, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County. Mezőtúr lies in the centre of the Alföld (the Great Hungarian Plain), about 150 km (90 miles) southeast of Budapest.

Pulsoximeter and sensor: a sensitive monitor for blood oxygenation in the intensive care of newborn babies, as well as in infants and children. “The modern intensive care of urgent, life-threatening diseases simply can not be done without this appliance,” says Professor Fekete.

Air humidifying chamber and camera: for the treatment of children suffering from asthma. This is important throughout the whole year, because asthma is a very frequent disease in childhood.”

Total support HUF 1,099,080.

2) Felső-Szabolcsi Kórház (Upper Szabolcsi Hospital) Paediatric Unit, Kisvárda, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County. Kisvárda is about 280 km (170 miles) northeast of Budapest.

Electrocardiograph machine, bought by Upper Szabolcsi Hospital with RBIF funds, in use.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Sándor Molnár 

ECG CARDIETTE AR 1200adv VIEW: electrocardiograph machine for every-day diagnostic evaluation of the heart. “An updated, excellent machine,” the Professor says.

Paramedic iPad Defibrillator: for use in acute emergency situations, when heart function stops. “It is obligatory for all hospital units where severely ill children are referred and treated.”

Injection-infusion pump: for intravenous infusions when dealing with shock or infectious diseases. “This is the modern method of long-term fluid and electrolyte infusion therapy in infants and children.”

Total support HUF 1,039,400


3) Városi Kórház Rendelőintézet Gyógyfürdő és Rehabilitációs Központ (Town Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre and Spa), Paediatric Unit, Kiskunfélegyháza, Bács-Kiskun county. Kiskunfélegyháza is in southern Hungary, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of Budapest

ECG Cardioline AR1200 View monitor: for permanent observation of heart functions,

ABPM-05 ambulatory blood pressure monitor: for 24-hour monitoring, and computerised evaluation in several disorders causing elevated blood pressure.

Total support HUF 970,000

4) Szent Lázár Megyei Kórház (County Hospital of St. Lazarus), Paediatric Unit, Salgótarján, Nógrád County. Salgótarján lies about 110 km (70 miles) northeast of Budapest.

POX Infusion Pumps: for function, see 2) above.

Total support HUF 1,000,000

5) Tolna Megyei Balassa János Kórház (Tolna County Balassa János Hospital), Paediatric Unit, Szekszárd, Tolna County. Szekszárd is roughly 150 km (90 miles) south of Budapest.

CAS MEDICAL SYSTEMS, Inc. CAS-740-1 blood pressure monitor: For function, see 3) above.

Total support HUF 427,470

“All of the equipment applied for by the above mentioned hospitals and paediatric units has a major impact on the high quality management of diagnostic and treatment care of children suffering with severe, sometimes acute and life-threatening, diseases,” Fekete says.