I hesitated a bit: can I show these photos to you? Am I allowed to talk about such misery, destruction, and complete hopelessness…
I think there are two kinds of people: those who care about the disadvantaged and those who don’t. However, there is a passage between the two, so one can still become the other. Our visit to Tiszabura today was typically such an opportunity. Whatever your political or ideological views, this profound misery cannot be ignored by anyone. Only silence can hide it…
Even at first glance, the community seemed neglected and bleak and this feeling only intensified with time. We received an infinitely kind and sincere welcome. The local nurse and health visitor of Tiszabura, Magdolna Bakóné, and the head of the local family care center gave us an insight into the everyday challenges of the settlement after receiving the donations. In the family care center, there is no heating, water, electricity, or a computer. It is incredible that despite these circumstances, two people handle all the legal and administrative tasks and procedures of taking care of 1,300 children and many elderly people on top of personal family visits.
We had the opportunity to peer into the lives of seven families to know for sure where the donation was going. If someone has been moving in social aid circles for a while, they think they are prepared for everything – and they are not. Poverty here is so shocking and utterly mundane that it’s hard to find words for it. A room with broken windows, where the only piece of furniture was a brick-legged bed because everything else had to be put on the fire to stay warm in winter.
Everything is made on a small stove: cooking, heating water for bathing. There’s nothing else. Torn linoleum. Next to the door frame, there is a big gap in the mud bricks. Five children live here with a young mother who is determined to give them a decent upbringing. Being able to heat only one room – even for two different families, for 7-8 people – is quite common. As well as rammed wooden floors and barefoot kids. This donation will be put to good use here. It is frightening to think of how many families live like this here in the village, in the region, in the country… Locals say no one would notice if Tiszabura disappeared from the face of the earth. It is time to change that!
