Press Releases

Homes for about 400 families to be rebuilt with Magyar Telekom’s support

Budapest, August 6, 2010 11:00

About 400 flood victim families will have their home rebuilt from the HUF 60 million donation granted by Magyar Telekom in June. The telecoms operator offered the cash donation to North Hungary flood victims in the framework of a comprehensive aid package and it is being used for rebuilding their homes with the involvement of the Hungarian Red Cross.

The Hungarian Red Cross used the donations received in May and June, i.e. the critical period of the flood, for providing immediate help. Thanks to donations it was able to provide packages containing mainly non-perishable food, detergents, sanitary items and bottled water to 6 thousand flood victim families all over the country during flood fighting and defence. The lion's share of the job is yet outstanding, with passing of the critical period and the arrival of the time to restore and reconstruct towards which the majority of the funds will be used.

Hungarian Red Cross will use the bigger part of the cash donations offered to flood victims towards financing reconstruction. Accordingly, out of the amount of HUF 60 million donated by Magyar Telekom in June, the homes of about 400 needy families afflicted by the flood will be rebuilt with the involvement of the Hungarian Red Cross, primarily through purchasing various building materials (brick, cement, tiles, etc.). The 200 T-Mobile handsets with a free of charge Domino card offered at the same time, go to elderly flood victims at localities hit by the flood, also with the help of local Hungarian Red Cross units.

Magyar Telekom was among the first to offer help to flood victims in North Hungary, when it launched the 1749 flood help line in May in cooperation with partner operators. In addition, T-Home and T-Mobile have also taken part in launching and running the 1752 national help line.

In order to mitigate the damage and express our solidarity in tangible manner, Magyar Telekom has established a comprehensive aid package consisting of several actions. In the framework of the aid package, we offered HUF 60 million to facilitate flood management efforts, as well as provided 200 mobile phones equipped with free-of-charge T-Mobile Domino cards to residents of localities hit by floods and those participating in rescue operations. Magyar Telekom also started to collect donations from its employees. The donations offered by employees are matched by double as much by the company and delivered to flood victims. The artists performing at the charity gala sponsored by Magyar Telekom and held on June 22 at the Palace of Arts also offered the total net revenue of the event for the purpose of helping those hit by the flood. The donated amounts and assets are distributed among those who need them most by the Hungarian Red Cross. Most recently the telecoms company credited one month's fee of T-Home services (TV, Internet and telephone) to the July bills of its subscribers living at the 10 settlements most seriously hit by the flood.