AIMS AND ACTIVITY

The Quick Relief Public Benefit Organization, that is, Foundation (GYÚK, the Hungarian abbreviation) was established by the founders in 2001 with the aim to promote the development of the domestic system of disaster management and to participate in the mitigation of damages caused by disasters to the population and the replacement of assets destroyed, in cooperation with professional organizations acting in disaster protection. To this end, it has established cooperation based on a long-term contract with the National Directorate General for Disaster Management, Ministry of Interior and several local authorities. As the professional monitoring service of the National Directorate General for Disaster Management it is working on the development of a national monitoring system.

In order to enhance the efficiency of social assistance and also, to introduce a new type of public benefit activity the Quick Relief Foundation collects pecuniary donations and aids and identifies international sources for funding the tasks of damage liquidation. Through offering the possibility of joining exactly outlined projects the Foundation organizes the involvement of other donor organizations in the elimination of the consequences of disasters.

An important mission of GYÚK is awareness-raising related to the importance of charitable support actions in the broad social public opinion and the development of the domestic culture of humanitarian aid and its presentment as a value. It participates in the development of technological innovations supporting the tasks of emergency warning, monitoring and relief and participates in the introduction of information systems serving the up-to-date performance of social community tasks.

In the operation of the GYÚK the public benefit element is decisive for the support of which it carries out also market, that is, business-like activity. Its public benefit tasks are closely associated with disaster elimination and the activity related to flood and inland water protection, the assistance of the damaged population and the rescue of values and replacement of assets destroyed. During this, the GYÚK assists the work of state organizations acting in disaster management and coordinates the relief work of social organizations.

PRODUCTS

On the basis of experiences gained in flood activities and its international knowledge obtained in the field of disaster management and demands formulated by disaster management organizations, the GYÚK established and has been developing its activity in an expedient manner. Thanks to this, it is in possession of products or is able to organize production thereof, which are needed on the site of disasters in a great mass and which have always constituted, till now, the greatest shortage.

The GYÚK assists disaster management activities with several "public benefit products", such as: food kit, bottled drinking water, and sealable bag suitable for the safe storing of personal assets and documents. All of this is packed, labelled and delivered in a way, which ensures transportation to the actual needy. Food kits make possible the temporary boarding of the population, which remained without food supply provisionally. Kits - in the composition of the content of which doctors and food experts participated - are suitable for covering the daily food demand of an adult person. By the help of bottled drinking water epidemical illnesses resulted from the use of contaminated wells can be prevented. The sealable bag has been tested and proved already during flood rescue in Poland.

SERVICES

Beyond the meeting of the most essential physical demands the GYÚK renders a further service which is needed in times of disaster at least as much as bread and water - and this is mental support. The Quick Mental Care Group (GYOLCS, the Hungarian abbreviation) organized by the GYÚK, comprising skilled psychologists and clergymen, assists the damaged who are compelled to leave behind their homes, livestock and assets as well as the sufferers, in the processing of mental blows hit them. In order to fulfil tasks the GYÚK concluded an agreement on cooperation with the International Education Directorate of the Ministry of Interior and the Hungarian Baptist Charity Service. These agreements make possible for the GYÚK to participate officially in the elimination and management of the mental consequences of disasters. The GYÚK has undertaken coordination, organization of the preparation of the participants and the funding of the program.

During disasters, beyond the population suffering actual damage, those participating in rescue are also exposed to great adversities the bearing of which and the processing of the mental trauma experienced often exceed the ability of people to cope. The GYOLCS ensures for them and also for their family members the use of organized mental aid.

As part of mental aid - in the summer holiday in 2001 - a so-called psychodrama camping was organized by the GYÚK and conducted for the children of families damaged during the flood disaster of the Tisza.

The scope of the public benefit activities of the GYÚK includes the support as main organizer of the settlement of the situation of the so called open-hearth slag houses in the North-Hungarian region on the basis of a Decision of the Government and cooperates closely with the local authorities of the affected Borsod and Heves counties. During the management of the problem which has been threatening more hundred families with their houses becoming uninhabitable 93 families got new homes in the first phase in a total of 23 settlements in the counties Borsod and Heves.

DEVELOPMENT SUPPORTS

In order to fulfil public benefit tasks the GYÚK carries out also a development activity associated with disaster protection. Among this, the management of the introduction and nation-wide installation of the IDEMS - integrated disaster and emergency management system - developed for emergency monitoring and alarming should be mentioned on the first place.

The monitoring system developed by the help of the professional technical partners is suitable for the monitoring of electronic signal systems on the whole area of the country or the region, as well as for the reception, processing and transmission to an adequate place of disaster signals and furthermore, for central data storing and processing of information obtained in this way and for organizing them in an inter active system and controlling them. The system, which meets also the strict requirements of the European Union, can be used both by state organs dealing with disaster management and big plants.

Furthermore, the GYÚK supports on business basis the development of different IT technologies promoting the fulfilment of common social tasks and re-invests the profit of the business activity in the funding of public benefit tasks. Of this, the MONA-System should be mentioned which makes possible the electronic transmission of information related to the sick (medical reports, radiograms, etc.) among health institutions located at different points of the country.