• Kezdőlap
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• Kuratórium
• Alapítók, munkatársak
• Kapcsolat
• Sajtómegjelenések
• Videó és hanganyagok
• 2009. beszámoló
• Adományok
• Aktivisták
• Alapítódokumentumok, emlékkönyv
• Az alapítás vitája
• Galéria
• Halottaink
• Hírek
• Karol Wojtya
• Karol Wojtyla Örökségéért-díj
• Támogatóink
• Wadowice-Kecskemét – a kézfogás követei
• Testvérvárosi szerződés (Umowa o partnerstwie)
• 

ABOUT US

Introduction

The Friendship Centre was founded in the town of Kecskemét in 2005. It was named after Karol Wojtyla, the later Pope John Paul II, who used to support the poor and the needy, which is one of the aims of our institute as well. Also, by bearing his name our centre would like to keep his memory alive. 
On 24th May 2009 the Karol Wojtyla Friendship House was opened by Ewa Filipiak, mayoress of Wadowice, the home town of John Paul II and the twin town of Kecskemét since 2007, Dr Balázs Bábel, archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemét, Dr Gábor Zombor, mayor of Kecskemét, Dr Péter Balázs, minister of foreign affairs of Hungary, József Pintér, president of seniors and Ferenc Molnár, associate president of seniors.
The self government of Kecskemét offered a ruined but once wonderful house for the purposes of the Friendship Centre. The preparations for the renovation process lasted for 3 years. Then it took us a year and a half to renovate the building itself. The project was financially supported by a large number of donators. A lot of volunteers and social workers also helped with the construction of the building. The project was directed by József Pinter, the president of seniors and Ferenc Molnár, the owner of Woodwork Molnár. In May 2009, just before the opening ceremony, Egressy Street and the entrance surroundings of the Wojtyla Frienship Centre were renewed by the town of Kecskemét – thanks to Mayor Dr Gábor Zombor, Vice Mayor Dr András Iványosi-Szabó, Vice Mayor László Sipos and Sándor Nagypál, head of department of town-strategic affairs.
The last step was the building of a nice small garden in front of the main entrance in June. We planted a lot of beautiful flowers and plants in a yard that had been covered with rubbles, debris and pieces of asphalt. Now we can say that the building of the Wojtyla Centre has become the gem of our town.   
In November 2009 the Hungarian Catholic Charity, too, started its activity in the House.  Thus, the Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre became a part of an organization of a great history, connected to the governance of the Hungarian Catholic Church and the Kalocsa-Kecskemét diocese. The Wojtyla House also maintains intense relationship with several Catholic charity services and the Foundation John Paul II.    

Mission

„Jesus, come to us. Be our guest. Bless what you’ve given to us. Amen”

Anyone who has the recommendation of the Family Help Service or a Catholic charity group can be the assigned guest of our institute. It is not only a friendship house, a meeting point and a cultural institute but also a social and rehabilitation centre. Our most important aim is offering help to those in need of mental assistance and earthly goods. Therefore, we are constantly widening our services, which include providing hot meal on a daily basis to 120-150 people, giving them clothes and all other necessities of normal life, organizing several cultural, leisure and educational programmes, e.g. excursions and handicraft activities. Our social workers also help all of them to find solutions for their daily problems and solve the difficulties by giving them advice, consolation and mental assistance.
The demand for accepting new guests is growing; however, we can take new guests only if we have vacancies, because there are no more free places at the Friendship Centre. In order to solve the problem, it is our main goal to buy and renovate the neighbouring buildings.

 Contacts

Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre
Address: Egressy utca 5/b
Kecskemét
H-6000

Run by: Wojtyla Ház Szociális Ellátó és Szolgáltató Non-profit Ltd. 
Address: Végh Mihály tér 5
Kecskemét
H-6000

Telephone/ Fax number: + 36 76 506 752; +36 76 505 041
Mobile: + 36 30 9251 654

Bank Account Number: 52400078-17039273
Web: www.wojtyla.hu          info@wojtyla.hu

ACTIVITIES

We also provide a wide variety of activities besides the day-to-day running of the Wojtyla Friendship Centre. Since the opening ceremony our activists and volunteers have been giving support to people in a lot of ways.

Hot meal and drink on the Main Square of Kecskemét (19th December)
The weather got extremely cold before Christmas. So our activists decided to give hot meal and hot drink to the needy on the Main Square of Kecskemét, next to Saint Nicholas Church. From 20th December bread with dripping and hot lemon tea were served from morning till night. Our volunteers also gave immediate help to those who seemed to be ill or showed the symptoms of hypothermia. “Everybody can turn to our activists with confidence in these days” – said József Farkas P., the managing director of Wojtyla House.       

Giving presents to poor families (15th December)
“It is better to give than to receive.” This meaning of this sentence is getting more and more important as Christmas is coming. Zoltán Bajkó, the parish priest from Pálmonostora, visited us at the Friendship House a few days ago. He asked us to help some honest but poor families belonging to his parish. We put together thirty gift packages containing food and beverage items, which were distributed among the families by Reverend Bajkó before Christmas. We hope that these presents made their Christmas merry and happy.  

Doctors at Friendship Centre (12th December)
The Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre had special guests on 12th December: Mayor Dr Gábor Zombor and Dr Lajos Németh, specialist for internal diseases. Their visit was not a one-off, as they volunteered to give regular medical advice to socially disadvantaged people who are suffering from different illnesses free of charge. The Friendship House provides a separate room where the patients can consult the doctors about their health, lifestyle, physical and mental problems. We are very happy that Dr János Tóth, specialist for internal diseases and Dr Géza Bazóki, the head of Bács-Kiskun County Hospital have also joined the medical team.  

Supporting joint-families (5th December)
Families are the basis of a healthy society, so we lay special emphasis upon supporting them. They are having more and more problems in a constantly changing social environment. The parents who often do overtime have hardly any time for their children. It is also very difficult for the parents to buy the Christmas presents for them. We try to do our best to help them. On Saint Nicholas Day (5th December), the Wojtyla Friendship House was full of children: we organized programmes for kids and their parents who live in a joint- family. They took part in a handicraft activity where they made honey-cakes and Santa Claus figures from apples, nuts and other natural ingredients. All of them enjoyed the common experience very much. Thanks to our donators, we were able to give the kids some presents as well and thus make their Christmas dreams come true.    

Health Day at Wojtyla House (21st October)
In the second half of October we received plenty of presents that can be used for hygienic purposes. The Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre seeks to aid families with financial difficulties, so we decided to distribute these donations among them. They got toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, disposable nappies, sponges and baby cream; we also gave a cot and a pram to two other families as a present. We hope that these gifts will improve the quality of their lives a little bit.

Supporting ex-prisoners (9th October)
It is well-known that the Wojtyla House gives a lot of support to people who have just been freed from prison too, promoting their reintegration into the society. We believe that everybody has a right to a second chance and setting a good example has positive and useful effects. According to the agreement between our institute and the police, prisoners and ex-prisoners will do the cleaning, the gardening and repair broken things regularly at the Friendship House. There are other forms of cooperation between us. Our activists will help to prepare and organize programmes in the prison and they will also bring presents for prisoners who have lost contact with their relatives.    

Children at Friendship House (28th August)
About 30 Wojtyla-children were invited to a talk in the Friendship Centre on Thursday. They are socially disadvantaged pupils whose parents often turn to us for help. We had two guests at the Friendship House: István Kecskeméti, the owner of the stationer’s in Horváth Döme Street, who gave the parents a 2000-forint voucher and Béla Koi, the owner of Saloon Pizzeria, who offered soft drinks and sweets. József Farkas P., the managing director of the Karol Wojytla Friendship Centre, said that there would be special activities for the children in the institute from September. Everybody is welcome to join the programmes.   

Environmental protection for kids (5th August)
Environmental protection is one of the most important topics nowadays. Governments and individuals should take some actions to protect nature and also draw all children’s attention to this key issue. We feel ourselves bound to organize environmental protection programmes for children. In the summer the Wojtyla Friendship Centre invited a lot of enthusiastic children to draw some pictures about this topic. The most beautiful ones are on exhibit in the hall of the Porta Association.

Excursion on Children’s Day (2nd June)
On Children’s Day the Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre offered a special gift to the socially disadvantaged pupils of Vörösmarty Mihály Primary School. On Tuesday nearly fifty of them took part in an unforgettable excursion to the alkali lakes in Kelemenszék organized by our institute. The programme included the exploration of the rich flora and fauna of the region, and bird-watching. In addition, the children also got acquainted with the Hungarian shepherds’ traditional lifestyle and their gastronomy. As the photos show, they had a very good time in the Kiskunság National Park We hope it was an experience that they will never forget. We would like to express thanks to Tibor Utassy for the excellent guided tour and to Gusztáv Kőrös, the chairman of the Gypsy Self-Government of Solt for the cooperation.      

International Relations

The Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre seeks to establish relationships with partners and other organizations abroad. Our first partner was the town of Wadowice in Poland, the hometown of Pope John Paul II. The relationship between us has been thriving since our first visit in 2007. We have also been planning to enter into relations with other Italian and German towns that important members of the Roman Catholic Church are or were connected with.      

Our Polish relations

Our relationship with Wadowice dates back to 2007. Since then, the delegation of the Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre and the representatives of Wadowice have visited each other’s town several times furthering the Hungarian-Polish relations.

2007
On 3rd May 2007 the delegation of the Friendship Centre paid its first visit abroad to Wadowice. József Farkas P., the managing director of the Wojtyla House and Tamás Csontos, the activist of the institute were given a warm reception in the town, where Karol Wojtyla was born and lived until the age of 18. After handing over the deed of foundation of the Wojtyla House to Mayor Ewa Filipiak, we spoke about the aims and mission of the Friendship Centre.
The mayoress also took over the letter in which Dr Gábor Zombor, the mayor of Kecskemét, proposed starting a twin town relationship between the two towns. The idea was received very positively with much encouragement. Ewa Filipiak, who knew John Paul II personally and visited him in Rome and Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence several times, promised to support the initiative. Four months later the official document was signed by the two mayors in Kecskemét.

2008
In May 2008 Ewa Filipiak invited our delegation to the festival in Wadowice commemorating the Holy Father’s 88th birthday. We also took the portrait of John Paul II that was offered to our institute by the contemporary painter Ferenc Kő with us. It was consecrated by Jan Szkodon, the assistant bishop of the Archbishop of Kraków in front of more than 4000 people who attended the Mass celebrated on the main square. Then József Farkas P., the leader of the delegation, delivered a brief speech to the audience and spoke about the foundation of the Karol Wojtyla Friendship Centre and the renovation works. A number of people promised to make a donation to the Wojtyla House. The mayoress, for instance, pledged to cover the expenses of the construction of the main entrance.
On the third day of our visit, Cardinal Dziwisz, who worked with the Holy Father as his secretary for 40 years, received the delegation in Krakow. We introduced the institute, its mission and also described our development plans. He made a promise to support them using his personal influence and pay a visit to Kecskemét in the near future.  
In the summer our Polish friends (Ewa Filipiak, Stanislaw Kotarba, Zdzislaw Szczur) returned our visit. They spent two days in the Hírös Város, and took part in both formal and informal meetings. Our guests also viewed the renovation works at the Karol Wojtyla Centre and were fascinated by the results. It was also discussed how we can further intensify the relations between the two towns.      

2009
24th May 2009 marked the culminating point of the Hungarian-Polish relations. After four years of hard work the Wojtyla House was opened, among others, by Mayor Ewa Filipiak, who also gave the assembled company a speech in which she spoke about Pope John Paul II and expressed her appreciation of our efforts to give support to poor people. Lech Kaczynski, the President of the Republic of Poland, Cardinal Dziwisz, the Archbishop of Krakow and Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland congratulated us in a letter read out by Joanna Stempinska, the Polish Ambassador to Budapest. They also spoke highly of the good relationship and the cooperation between the two nations and wished the institute every success.  
This event was followed by our pilgrimage to the homeland of John Paul II in June: Wadowice invited delegations from its twin towns to a 3-day festival and organized different programmes for them. On the first day the guests visited the concentration camps in Auschwitz-Birkenau; while on the second day we took part in formal meetings. We negotiated with Daniela Strzelecka, the curator of the Museum of the Holy Father Family House, the members of the town council and the other delegations from Italy and Germany. We were happy that the Friendship Centre was in the centre of public attention in the papal town: a lot of people enquired about its main objectives and activities. Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican official in charge of promoting the cause to declare Pope John Paul II a saint, also congratulated on the opening of the Friendship Centre. We had the opportunity to meet Stanislaw Dziwisz, who also keenly interested in the latest developments at the Wojtyla House too. After the mass the Cardinal consecrated the flag of the Porta Association, which Dr Balázs Bábel, the Archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemét gave to the organization in 2007.

We were glad that Ewa Filipiak accepted the invitation to the Hírös Hét Festival and returned to our town in August once again. She and József Farkas P. opened an exhibition entitled ‘The Birth of a Friendship’, which represents the friendship between the two towns. The exhibits were brought from Wadowice and displayed in the Friendship Centre. Finally, József Farkas P. gave the mayoress a copy of a street sign saying Karol Wojtyla utca (‘Karol Wojtyla Street’) – the original can be found on the outer wall of the institute. As it turned out later, this present was taken to their local history museum.   

Our Italian relations

We have taken the first steps to enter into closer relations with Italian partners as well. In May 2009 we took part in a festival in Wadowice, to which delegations from the hometowns of prelates and popes were invited. We managed to establish contacts with Pietrelcina and San Giovanni Rotondo. The former is the birthplace of Padre Pio, a Capuchin priest with the Christ-like stigmata wounds on his hands. The latter is the town where he lived, worked and died in 1968. The relationship between him and Karol Wojtyla dates back to 1947, when the young Polish priest visited the monk to have his confession heard by him. Padre Pio was beatified and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1999 and 2002 respectively. As the pictures show, the Italian guests treated us as friends from the first moment we met.
Although we were going go to San Giovanni Rotondo in June to attend the mass performed by Pope Benedict XVI and pay tribute to Padre Pio, the pilgrimage was cancelled, because nothing can be more important for us than the mission of the Wojtyla Friendship House. However, in the near future we would like to visit this picturesque town and Padre Pio’s tomb as soon as possible and further develop the relationship with our Italian partners.

MP3 file

Köszönjük mindazoknak, 
akik bármilyen formában imával, 
anyagiakkal, munkával, szervezéssel 
a rendezvényeken való részvétellel
tovább építik a Wojtyla Házat, névadónk, 
atyánk, mesterünk, tanítónk 
örökségének tovább éltetését.