The 11,000 Jewish children in Budapest are generally underfed, under clothed and inadequately housed, according to a survey by the World Jewish Congress made public here.
Nearly 60 per cent of the children do not receive three hot meals a day, according to the survey, and 75 per cent do not eat meat or fresh fruit even once a week, while only eleven per cent have milk and sugar regularly. The Jewish community is supplying nearly 1,000 children with communal meals and has an additional 1,250 requests which it has not been able to fill.
More than one-third of the children share their room with at least three other people, and over 800 of them live in homes where there is no heat during winter and the window panes have been shattered and never replaced. Some 1,500 do not have a change of clothing and own only one pair of shoes so that they cannot have them repaired without losing time from school. Five hundred children have received relief allotments of clothing, but another 2,950 requests are still on file.
Nearly 4,200 children have requested financial aid, the survey revealed. Approximately 760 have received free text books and school supplies and another 900 children have requested books. Several hundred children are suffering from physical and mental diseases and about 500 need medical care which their families cannot afford, while an additional 1,300 need free dental care. More than half the children have expressed a desire to leave the country.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
