Ok, a lot of this is spread around a couple different posts in a couple different threads but after being asked to write a report about it today at work (and after my acknowledgement that I suck at this sort of stuff, when I responded to Tuna's selfie request) it's beginning to dawn on me that I need to make a better effort as this is going to go on for quite some time (specifically, the need to help people). With that, I'd like to bring everyone up to speed on where this all started, where we are now, and where I think we might be going from here.
I'm sure Grassroots will want to help again. I'm sure help from Grassroots will be needed again. And I'm sure it will be needed in a timely fashion.
So I'd like to put everything in one thread so we can all check in on one page to get what we need. 
On or about March 1st we accidentally discovered that there were 48 refugees living in Papa. This was brought to my attention when a school teacher friend of mine made mention that a maintenance man in the building behind her asked for a ball. When pressed, he stated "we've got over 20-kids in here and not a single one of them has a toy!"
I turned to my keyboard and sent out an SOS locally that got a LOT of attention. Somehow, everything that followed had us at the center of things. Donations, collections, and delivery. By Thursday we had amassed an army, and made our first drop off:
The support was so tremendous we had to start a local FB page in an attempt to get everyone organized (it worked), Instantly we had over 50 members!
Grassroots was very much involved with the donations here, but behind the scenes. In the "History in the Making" thread I posted the arrival of our guests and the results but never specifically mentioned that some of the donations that made this possible came through our very own GRM PM system (You three know who you are, and we thank you very much).
The building that was housing the refugees was a migrant work facility (think former military barracks) that housed single men while they worked away from home. The request was made, and the owner accepted the arrival of the workers' immediate family members who all came from an Hungarian speaking region of Ukraine. Our efforts included getting people settled, the establishment of a working kitchen (one existed, but it only had a coffee maker and a bottle opener in it), doctors visits, and of course the delivery of clothes, bedding, toys, food, and medicine.
Things worked out pretty well, and we learned a lot along the way (trial by fire, really).
While this was happening, we were made aware of another effort in Kisgorbo, Hungary (64kms away). If you've read this thread then you know that Grassroots Motorsports raised over 2-million Hungarian forint towards the efforts of the residents and the mayor of Kisgorbo to convert an abandoned school into shelter that would house as many as 45 refugees in a town of around 180 people.
When a local international school picked up on what was going on, and found out what we were doing, they started a food drive and brought a truck-load of goodies to send with us when we made our cash delivery.
Donations to support that effort are still coming in from GRM members and I'll be transferring the money that does on the 25th of every month. If this is something you would like to support, simply use the aforementioned PayPal address and write something to the effect of "Kisgorbo" in the notes section.
Cool.
What you may or may not know is that our local guests have almost all but moved on (Papa, not Kisgorbo). Some found better work in Budapest, some in a neighboring city (Gyor), and some simply were moving further west. Lacking local direction, Mrs. Hungary and I decided to see who we might know that might be doing what. It turns out we know some pretty crazy people who are doing some pretty crazy things.
First up is Petra Szabo, who is the sister of Andrew Szabo. Andrew runs a charity rallye that goes to Africa every other year (Budapest to Bamako) and as this is something I've followed for many years and even entered myself (scheduled for October of 2022). Because of that, reaching out to the Szabo family really wasn't difficult. To get things started, Petra gave us the locations of two facilities housing refugees in Budapest. The first housed mothers and children, and they were in need of snacks, easy to make meals, and fresh fruit:
We delivered over 20kg of fruit, as well as multiple boxes of snacks, juice, milk, sugar, and the like. The lady in the last picture is the person who runs this shelter and doesn't speak any English. The first two words out of her mouth were "JESUS CHRIST!!!" when we opened up the back of the truck. She couldn't say much through her giggles of joy after that. It was a good feeling (and there's enough healthy and chocolaty snacks in that shed behind her now to feed a child army for MONTHS!).
Same trip, we also got the location of a student shelter in Budapest. This is a place that was a hostel but filled itself with 60-beds and opened up to students arriving from Ukraine.
Here we delivered a table (not the kid one you see left in the truck), chairs, toasters, kettles, snacks, teas, milk, sugar, salt, and the like. Everything will go towards helping establish the common areas of the facility. Here too, people are transiting in and through. Sometimes on to other locations.
Also working in the background was the expected arrival of 60-more refugees in Papa. No one had any details of when or where, but we took in more donations so we would be ready. Today the Hungarian Order of Malta has announced that they are going to refocus their efforts locally in anticipation of those arrivals. As they are far more organized and able to offer long term assistance than we are, we made the following donation to them this morning:
This donation consisted of 66 jars of baby food, 30 boxes of baby formula, 37 packets of kid squeezable fruit pure, 17 packages (big) of diapers, and a crap-load (pun intended) of baby wipes (see? I'm evolving. That was an "inventory" 
)
And that catches us up to "where we are".
So where are we going from here?
Well, a lot of directions at once apparently:
First up we should talk about Petra: It turns out that she's doing laundry service (every other day) for four shelters in Budapest and it's becoming very cost prohibitive for her. She spends about 10,000-15,000 forint a week (about $30-$45) and helps between 60 and 80 people (this is in addition to the washing machines they already have in their facilities, which run near-constantly). Mrs. Hungary and I set up donations and collected enough money to keep her in operation until about May 11th.
We'll be revisiting this one as we get closer to the drop dead date on that one. Laundry is one of those things that seems so simple it often gets overlooked, but so beneficial to the recipients of the service.
Second, we have to re-visit Andrew Szabo. This crazy guy does things like dig wells in Africa and leads charity rallyes to Sierre Leone. So it was no surprise to me that he has two projects going in Ukraine right now. Both are at temporary refugee shelters. He's got a site started, but it's very rudimentary yet. You can visit it here: http://www.give.helpukrainenow.eu/
Anyhoo, he gave Mrs. Hungary and I a list of needed medical supplies. We've started buying stuff and just filled our third box.
We're expecting a fourth box to arrive on Sunday from a local friend who is also purchasing items. For our part this is being done through donations we've received from immediate family (just under $1000). It's most certainly one effort that we would have loved to have included GRM on, but the short deadline made it next to impossible to organize in time. We're dropping this off in Budapest on Monday, and by Thursday Andrew will have it across the Ukrainian border and will be driving it to the temporary refugee centers where it needs to go.
Have I mentioned that Andrew is basically Hungary's version of GRM? His motto for his African adventures is "Anyone. By any means" and he means it. If you enter the rallye in an ambulance, the dude will waive your entry fees as long as you promise to deliver it in working condition to the locals when you're done. I'm hoping for more help requests from him.
And currently last but not least is this post I just made on a FB page where Hungarians offer to help those arriving with pets:
Pets are a big focus for Mrs. Hungary and I, and have been long before this started. Now that we've latched on with someone who is able to get medical supplies across the border, we're hoping to do the same thing with pet food and pet medical supplies.
So the big question. If all this has been going on, why the big catchup now?
Well, I'm learning that there's always going to be "one more effort" and that we can't always count on a stable situation (except maybe, Kisgorbo) on which we can focus our sole attention. With that we thought it a better idea to have a couple places where we feel like we can do a lot of good. Currently Petra and Andrew are our primary focus for such opportunities, but we get the feeling that others will be drawn to our circle the same way they were. And if they are, and if we're going to be able to collect donations to help them out, then we'll need to do so with as little lead time as possible.
It's my hope that when an opportunity arises, we can make one post in one place and drive one action to meet it. From there, we can all check back in on one thread to get updates on how the results played out, or see if there are any questions.
So here we go everyone. I think this is going to be bigger than we thought it was going to be when we started. But I think we're up to the challenge, and I think we can do some more real good somewhere.
Cheers
-Bill
