2018 Projects: Péterfy Sándor Hospital, Budapest

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The Péterfy Sándor Street Hospital, located in District 7, is one of the larger hospitals in Budapest with nearly 1,600 beds, where patients can be treated for an array of ailments and conditions. The Péterfy Sándor Hospital has been operating since 1848, which also makes it one of Budapest’s older hospitals.

The RBIF has been working closely with the hospital for a number of years, with its focus being on the improvement and provision of facilities and equipment on the neonatal wing, which treats and cares for newborn children, primarily premature babies. Despite the dedication of its workers, patrons and benefactors the hospital still struggles to provide the most up-to-date and holistic care for its patients. So one of the RBIF’s priorities is to support the neonatal wing by helping to equip it with the required technology, in order to ensure the comfort and survival of many of the prematurely newborn babies they receive.

The neonatal wing is run by Dr Gabor Baross who, with the support of his team, can deal with anything between 500 – 600 premature babies every year. Given the wing can only accommodate 20/30 babies at any one time, if one was to say the wing is running at capacity, it would be somewhat of an understatement. Dr Baross also explained that to compound this problem, it is getting harder and harder to recruit and retain skilled and qualified nurses, to care for the newborn babies, as they are being tempted to leave Hungary and move abroad.

 

What defines a premature baby who needs the help of Dr Baross and his colleagues? A premature baby is anything weighing between 500 grams to 1 kilogram. A baby born under 500 grams has a 20/30% survival rate, and then only a 30% chance of being healthy. Once a newborn is brought to the wing Dr Baross ensures he/she is checked extensively, and then placed in one of the incubators – presuming there is free capacity. Depending on the diagnosis, the baby will then spend anything between 4 weeks to 4 months within the confines of this incubator. Dr Baross welcomes visits from the parents, but this needs to be managed carefully as there can be up to 5 incubators in 1 room, meaning circulation space can be at a premium.

 

As a direct result of your generous help and contributions in 2018, we were able to buy and provide Dr Baross with eight top of the range bedside monitors, which is excellent news given our target was five. This has greatly helped the unit, and made the monitoring of the babies’ welfare far, far easier, as these new machines can measure blood pressure ECG, temperature and blood oxygen levels using one lead only. The older version required 4 machines with 4 separate leads. Not only was this inefficient, but it made holistic diagnosis / check-ups more complicated and timely.

 

What next? The hospital asks the government for support every year, but so far it is only patrons like the RBIF and others who provide them with support. The objective for 2019 is to acquire 3 or 4 more monitors as well as provide support for the wing to construct parent rooms. Despite Dr Baross winning an award for the most “Baby Friendly Hospital” in 2018, the department is still tired and limited. There is some redundant space at the end of the wing which can be converted into spaces for parents to stay with their babies. Currently there are 2 rooms (for mothers only) and fathers can only visit for a few hours every day. Fathers are not allowed to stay the night, primarily due to capacity reasons. Clearly this proposed construction for further parent rooms is (almost) prohibitively expensive, but with the support of the RBIF’s sponsors and guests there is always hope.

Like our new website? Find out who designed it…

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The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that the RBIF launched a brand-new website in 2018, a platform that makes it much easier for us to let you know exactly what we are doing and helps us to interact more with everyone on social media.

Designing and building a new website is not an easy task, and not a cheap one either, which is why we were extremely grateful to Edit McAlister at Expat Press Magazine and Inter Relocation.

Why did you decide to help the RBIF with its new website?

When the RBIF Chairman Douglas Arnott asked me whether I could help with this project, there was nothing to decide, I had to say yes. I’ve been attending the Burns Suppers for almost ten years as a guest, and I know just how much valuable work goes into running the foundation.

I really appreciate, and hold in high regard, the work carried out by the RBIF. The purpose of the fundraising is to help sick and underprivileged children, so for me it was a no-brainer: if the foundation needed my expertise, I was happy to give it to them.

The new website helps us communicate our fundraising activity for sick and underprivileged children to as wide an audience as possible.

Edit, many would think Expat Press Magazine is just another website for expats in Hungary, but it’s a bit more than that, isn’t it?

Edit McAlister, Managing Editor and Director of Marketing / photo: Brigitta Kátay-Tóth

It is important for us that our readers receive content that does not come across as simple advertising, but which conveys credible information and is genuinely helpful.

The majority of our writers are expats themselves, who have lived in the country for a long time and know it inside out. For example, the places that we write about are not just ones we have visited once, they have become regular haunts and we share tried-and-tested experiences with our readers.

We believe it is crucial that our readers should really feel at home in Hungary, with all its positive and negative nuances. Our Budapest Expats group on Facebook is essentially an extension of the magazine, where people can go to for further help and guidance from us.

Why have interactive websites and social media become so important?

The two are intertwined. There are many professional articles out there on this, but in a nutshell, social media posts provide an opportunity for the public to find your new web content and click through to your site, and an active social media presence builds relationships with your audience.

An interactive web design engages visitors with a more relevant experience. It’s the difference between talking at someone and starting a conversation.

What would you say to anyone thinking of offering their own specialist services to help the RBIF?

You cannot put a price on the activity that the RBIF performs. Some might question the importance of corporate social responsibility activities.

I believe that giving back to the community and helping those in need should be an integral part of our lives nowadays, both at a personal and at a business level. For me at least, this isn’t even a question.

 

 

2018 Charity Wine-tasting – Buddha-Bar Hotel

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On 15 November 2018 the RBIF held a charity wine-tasting event in the fantastic setting of one of Budapest’s finest hotels, the BuddhaBar Hotel.

The ultimate objective of the wine-tasting was to choose the wines that we will serve at the 2019 Burns Supper to be held on 26 January, but perhaps more importantly it gave everyone a chance to enjoy a relaxing and informal Thursday evening in good company and with some excellent wines.

The charity wine-tasting provided an opportunity for guests to taste their way around Hungary, without ever leaving the capital. Indeed, we had a nice range of Italian wines too, which were a great complement to the many Hungarian products on display.

We were lucky to enjoy the support of many winemakers from around the country, including the Árvay Winery (Tokaj), Szent Donát Winery (Csopak), Babiczki Winery (Mátra), Vylyan Vineyards (Villány), Etyeki Kúria Winery (Etyek), Hetényi Winery (Szekszárd), Frittmann Winery (Soltvadkert), Orosz Gyula Winery (Etyek), Szende Winery (Villány), Vinox Wine Traders, and the house wines from our host for the Burns Supper, the Corinthia Hotel.

Please click on the photos below to see exactly what happened at the wine-tasting, thanks to everyone who came!

2018 Projects: Renovation of Wesley János nursery in Budapest

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In 2018 the RBIF and its supporters and sponsors helped renovate a nursery in one Budapest’s most disadvantaged districts.

The Wesley János nursery in Dankó utca, district 8 in Budapest, accommodates many children during the day who for various reasons outwith their control are unable to attend other nurseries perhaps closer to their home.  The nursery building was in a poor state, and Zsuzsanna Bozó along with Patrick McMenamin, two long-standing supporters of the RBIF, decided they wanted to do something about it. The project got off to a fantastic start with a donation of GBP 5000 from the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal.

Renovating an entire nursery is no mean feat, but thanks to Zsuzsa’s organisation skills she soon had a band of helpers, volunteers and organisations, including the RBIF, willing to get involved.

Unfortunately, soon after the work began it turned out that the nursery was in a far worse state than had originally been assumed, particularly the walls, and indeed the building was a health hazard to the children.

It was a setback, but soon the organisers had found the tradesmen to complete the extra work, getting rid of the mould, and the renovation was back on track.

This did mean, however, that a large chunk of the original budget had to be spent on finishing the unplanned tasks, and this put both the end-date and indeed the full completion of the project in doubt. The children were coming back to nursery after the summer holidays, so the building had to be fit for purpose by 1 September at the latest.

With the first nursery project sponsored by the RBIF in Zabar in 2017, the RBIF committed to buying a washing machine and a tumble drier. This proved to be a successful approach, where the equally disadvantaged children there were able to bring their dirty clothes into nursery in the morning, and be sent home with clean clothes in the afternoon. Experience showed that not having clean clothes was one of the reasons behind absenteeism at the nursery.

The RBIF had originally committed to buying a washing machine and tumble drier for the Wesley János nursery too, but once it transpired that the funding had been underestimated because of the unexpected problems, we were very happy to be able to offer Zsuzsa and Patrick the extra finance that they needed to bring the project to a successful conclusion. So not only did we help to buy the washer and drier, we also provided the funds to buy the furniture to equip the now clean, healthy and modernised nursery building.

This extra injection of money was largely thanks to the guests and sponsors of the RBIF Summer BBQ, held for the first time this year, and brought the RBIF’s contribution to the project to over HUF 1 million (EUR 3200).

Now that the nursery has been officially handed over and the children are enjoying their new and healthy surroundings, we would like to send our thanks to everyone involved in the nursery renovation, all of the organisations, companies, volunteers and helpers, including the St. Andrews Association and the Irish Hungarian Business Circle, who gave either time, expertise or dug deep into their pockets to make the Wesley János nursery a suitable and safe place for the many disadvantaged children that attend. This truly was an international effort.

For more information on the nursery projects run by Zsuzsa and Patrick, you can visit their website here.

This is one of the six projects supported by the RBIF in 2018 from the funds raised at the Burns Supper in January this year.

2018 Summer BBQ

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On 2 September 2018 the RBIF held its inaugural (end-of) summer BBQ at the Chefparade Country venue in Etyek, just 30 minutes outside Budapest. It looked for a while that […]

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History

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How did the Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF) come into being? Well, in the beginning was The Supper, and The Supper was with the Hungarian Scottish Society, and The Supper was The Hungarian Scottish Society. Except that it’s all a little more complicated than that…

What is clear is that the history of the RBIF is intrinsically linked with both the Budapest Burns Supper, which dates back to 1998, and the Hungarian Scottish Society. It might be more accurate to say that they begat the foundation.

The RBIF, indeed any foundation, needs a founder, someone who actually gets the ball rolling with a donation of money. In our case, that man was Zoltán Magyar, whose initial input in 2005 of HUF 1.1 million (around EUR 3,800 at the September 2012 exchange rate) set up the organisation.

Magyar is President of the Hungarian Scottish Society, and, with Jock MacKenzie was involved from the start with organising the Burns Supper. Magyar has had a long-time association with the Hungarian Football Federation (Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség), which also provides a link to the foundation’s Honorary President, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Manchester United boss Fergie agreed to take up the role on 23 January 2007, when he was in the country to give a lecture to Hungarian football coaches. He had breakfast with MacKenzie and Magyar, after which he joked in an exclusive interview he gave me for The Budapest Sun that he had been “press-ganged” into joining.

Describing himself as “a good Scot, a proud Scot”, and “a real aficionado of Robert Burns”, Ferguson said he wanted to spread the fame of Scotland’s national bard, adding that the RBIF’s charitable work was “exceptional”. The football legend presents the Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Sponsor of the Year Trophy each year before a Man United home game at Old Trafford.

Ensuring that the books are all above board and that everything is transparent, accounting services are provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers and PwC Partner David Williams sits on the foundation’s Curatorium. In addition, KPMG makes an audit of the financial statements, a task organized by Partner Elek Votin. Neither PwC nor KPMG charge for their services, providing them instead as a form of sponsorship.

In addition to its fundraising activities, the centrepiece of which remains the Burns Supper, the RBIF also uses its highly developed networking skills to source funding and other support for cultural and Corporate Social Responsibility projects.

“The RBIF is not short of missions, but with a fully dedicated, no overhead staff [costs are met through sponsorship deals], just short of time for implementation of ideas to fulfil our objectives,” says MacKenzie.

By Robin Marshall

For a history of the Budapest Burns supper, click here.

For more on the Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Sponsor of the Year Trophy, click here.