"For the second year running Malév Hungarian Airlines and Hungarian Baptist Aid have set the "Shoebox flight" on its way, carrying 1000 presents packed in shoeboxes to orphaned children in Transylvania.The gifts, collected as part of the charity organization’s "Christmas for 10,000 Children" campaign, are being flown to the children by the Hungarian national flag carrier on flight MA 890 to Tirgu Mures on 14 December.
Some of the Christmas presents, which Malév staff members also helped get ready, were handed over by Magdolna Költö, chair of the Malév Supervisory Board, and Sándor Szenczy, president of Hungarian Baptist Aid, to captains Péter Pintér and Péter Szentei and the flight crew in the passenger terminal of Ferihegy International Airport immediately before departure of the "Shoebox flight". Members of the press also attended the event.
Cooperation between Malév and Hungarian Baptist Aid goes back several years, during which time the two organizations have worked together to rush aid to those in need in time of war and natural disasters. In order to ensure effective assistance Malév provides Hungarian Baptist Aid with discounted air tickets and special cargo rates for aid shipments and the carriage of rescue equipment across its own scheduled network. This means that the Hungarian Baptist Aid rescue group, Rescue24 International Special Search and Rescue Team, is able to depart within six hours to any part of the world suffering a humanitarian crisis.
The "Shoebox flight" is the joint pre-Christmas charity campaign of the two organizations. For the first time last year, 600 "shoeboxes of love" were sent to children in Transylvania. Naturally, just as last year so too this year Malév is carrying the presents free of charge.
Given its circumstances the Hungarian national airline cannot donate money in the same way as other major corporations, but the Malév team, when needed, is always willing to help and work for free. Thanks, too, to their efforts, the aid workers of Hungarian Baptist Aid can arrive on the scene quickly, thereby providing vital, and in some cases the only help to many people. This time they are carrying Christmas love and good cheer to the orphans of Transylvania."
Source: Malév
19.12.2007