The management and staff of the National Széchényi Library have participated in fundraising activities on several occasions and unfortunately the year 2022 also provided an opportunity to do so.
With the help of aid organisations and Ukrainian partners, a trip to Transcarpathia was organised on 19th December 2022, during which Dávid Rózsa, Director General of the Hungarian National Library visited several sites, where the Ukrainian-language storybook, Ribizli at the End of the World, a translation of an award-winning collection of Hungarian folk tales published by among others the National Library was handed over to the Maltese Charity Service, to refugees and libraries.
Dávid Rózsa, Director General of the National Library, first handed over books at the Beregsurány Help Centre, run by the Maltese Charity Service on the other side of the border. At the refugee centre set up in the Reformed Church in Solyvka, a few kilometres from Mukachevo, the delegation, led by Ukrainian nationality advocate Liliana Grexa, distributed books and stationery, as well as non-perishable food to refugee children, mothers and grandparents from the interior of Ukraine.
The national library has made it a priority to help libraries across the border. Therefore, Director General Dávid Rózsa visited three priority Hungarian libraries in Berehovo. The National Széchényi Library donated textbooks and journals to the library of the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College, and Mr. Rózsa talked to the Head of the library, Ibolya Nagy Szamborovszkyné, about the possibility of joint projects. The Central Library of Berehovo, managed by Éva Varga, President of the Association of Hungarian Librarians of Transcarpathia, also received hundreds of Ribizli volumes and books of fine and specialist literature in Hungarian. The programme concluded with a discussion with István Marosi, Head of the Bendász István Greek Catholic Library and Archives, on the expansion of the existing relationship with the library.
The delegation was also received by Nagyia Lóga, Deputy Mayor of Berehovo and Dr. István Gyebnár, Consul General of the Mission.
