Soros Gives Budapest EUR 1 M To Fight Coronavirus
- 31 Mar 2020 10:06 AM
- Hungary Around the Clock
The Open Society Foundations will donate €1 million to Budapest for combating the coronavirus, George Soros wrote in a statement on Monday.
Soros wrote that he was born in Budapest in the middle of the Great Depression, “barely a decade after the Spanish Flu left thousands of dead in Budapest. I lived through World War II, the Arrow Cross rule, and the siege in the city. I remember what it is like to live in extreme circumstances.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic knows no boundaries, not between countries, communities, religions, or people,” the statement continued.
“Anyone can become infected, but some of us are more vulnerable than others. I think of the elderly, who sometimes live in very close quarters in homes for the aged; and of the homeless, whose ranks are growing as so many become suddenly unemployed and lose even the fragile safety of workers’ hostels.
Cities run many such institutions, where the most vulnerable try to find refuge […] They have the responsibility, but often lack adequate funds to help those most in need.”
Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony wrote on his Facebook page on Monday that the city would use the money on equipment necessary for protection against the virus, as well as for the testing of healthcare workers.
MTI Photo: Balázs Mohai
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