History of the Hungarian caritas Society in SA Inc.
The Hungarian Caritas was formed as an off shoot of the Hungarian village (1976 1980). The Hungarian Village was the brainwave of Dr András Dezséry and Mr Laczina Frigyes – as they both felt that something needed to be done to assist the ageing members of the Hungarian community.
As there was no call for a residential village at that time the funds that had been raised were put into a trust fund until there was more interest in this type of accommodation. Thus the fund raising group disbanded.
Mr Laczina Frigyes then went ahead to set up the Hungarian Caritas with the help of a merry band of volunteers. This group held regular afternoon teas at the Hungarian Club – literally a coffee and cake club – strongly supported by Villi’s.
When the Federal Government started to offer grants to community groups to establish aged care facilities the Hungarian Caritas Society in SA Inc. was established and registered and funding was applied for and the monies that were being held in trust were utilised!
Shortly after this the Norwood Nursing Home was purchased with the cooperation of the Serbian Welfare Association, this was because neither group had sufficient funds to purchase or build an aged care facility. The situation was that we both would have had to refund the government grants or combine our resources and jointly purchase an aged care facility – this collaboration still exists to this day. Later on our society received the license for five low care places – which we then shared with Clayton Church Homes Inc. where we now have even more places available at their Magill facility.
Since those early times we are a completely different organisation as far as what we can supply to the elder members of our community. Such as with the assistance of the Hungarian club we have a very popular two course seniors’ lunch every Wednesday. We have a very active carers’ support group who meet monthly to relax (with Tai Chi) then have an hour of education in topics that relate to their specific problems. We also organise four larger retreats where we go to places of interest, such as the National Motor Museum to just name one.
Also our office at Norwood is now staffed by a volunteer every week day so that we can be of assistance to members of our community.