Hungary Signs Deal To Support Iraqi Christian Clinic

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – The Hungarian government is donating 145 million forints ($525,000) to Saint Joseph’s Clinic in Erbil, Iraq, which provides services for mainly Christian refugees living in the city.

An agreement on the donation, meant to cover the clinic’s medical supplies for six months, was signed Monday by Hungarian Minister of Human Resources Zoltan Balog and Archbishop Bashar Warda, a Chaldean Catholic cleric in Erbil.

Warda said his archdiocese received 13,200 Christian families in August 2014 after they fled Mosul when the Islamic State group took control of the Iraq city.

Warda said the donation “will be a big help” for the clinic, which provides free medicines to 3,100 people with chronic diseases. The Hungarian government has a special program to help persecuted Christians, especially in the Middle East.