It has been the third time already that International Student Union (ISU) has offered the total revenue of their annual big event, International Food Day, for charitable purposes. At the eleventh festival of international gastronomy, held this past spring, there were about a hundred international students from as many as fifteen different countries preparing their national dishes, which were then tried and consumed by a crowd of more than five thousand. At the event, students from various cultural backgrounds could learn about each other through a wide variety of culinary specialties and customs, but they also collected donations for a cause. After the festival, the organizers made a decision to offer one hundred percent of the money that came in to the foundation Leukémiás Gyermekekért Alapítvány [Foundation for Children with Leukemia]. The check made out to the tune of the total amount raised was handed over to a representative of the foundation in Gyermekgyógyászati Intézet [Institute of Pediatrics] on September 21.
“We would wish to use the fund raised now for creating a proper control mechanism to be installed at the in-patient department, which is currently open from both sides, with the aim of regulating trespassing in the interest of the young patients to avoid the potential risk of contagion or infection. It is our intention to introduce an access control system operated with video-assisted magnetic swipe cards,” said Professor Csongor Kiss, Head of the Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at the University of Debrecen, who is also the President of the Board of Trustees of Leukémiás Gyermekekért Alapítvány.
The symbolic check for HUF 1.5 million was presented on behalf of the International Student Union by President Georgina Pantelides and Founder and Vice-President Azeem J. Umar and in the name of faculty students’ representations by President of GYTK [Faculty of Pharmacy] ISU Sara Mirani, President of FOK [Faculty of Dentistry] ISU Dagbjört Vésteinsdóttir, President of Népegészségügyi Kar [Faculty of Public Health] ISU Othman Essa and George Nicoalou, Head of events of ISU.
“As students involved in health care programs, we are fully aware of the need for charitable offerings. This year, too, we wish to support a foundation where we know that our donation is badly needed. We are confident that the best place for this amount of HUF 1.5 million is in the hands of the trustees at Leukémiás Gyermekekért Alapítvány, said Zoltán Kovács, DEHÖK’s Presidential Representative Responsible for International Students.
Cooperation between Hungarian and international students is definitely going to continue in the future, too. In a way similar to how the function of International Food Day has been developed over the years, both sides intend to do the same about the event they call “Festival of Thousand Lights” preferably as soon as possible.
DEHDK PR and Press Office
