The first Ronald McDonald Family Center in Hungary was opened on Wednesday at the Clinical Center of the University of Debrecen, providing a relaxing environment for children and their families in the hospital. The family center was built on the previously unused attic of the Pediatric Clinic for HUF 120 million.
The homely community space, designed and built by the Ronald McDonald Children’s Aid Foundation with the involvement of the clinic’s experts, has been waiting for the patients and family members of the Pediatric Clinic of the Clinical Center of the University of Debrecen since the end of April. The Ronald McDonald Family Center, which is set up from the disused attic of the hospital with a total investment of HUF 120 million, also helps children and their companions to relax between protracted treatments with a living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and play huts.
The Ronald McDonald Children’s Aid Foundation has been helping families with young children with chronic illnesses for 28 years. With the Ronald Houses built next to the hospitals in Budapest and Miskolc, the Ronald rooms in the Children’s Clinic in Pécs, and now, for the first time in Hungary, a Family Center in Debrecen. With the new investment, our goal was to provide a homely and relaxing environment for families to refresh themselves and relax from the often stressful everyday life between hospital treatments.
– said László Ablonczy, the professional leader of the Ronald McDonald Children’s Aid Foundation, at the ceremonial handover of the family center on Wednesday.
Experts working in pediatrics, without exception, agree that the supportive environment, the proximity of family members and the possibility of rest and recharge play a decisive role in recovery. The new community space of the Ronald McDonald Children’s Aid Foundation creates the opportunity for this in the attic of the Pediatric Clinic.
It is important for us that sick children be able to spend this difficult time here with their parents. So far, our colleagues in inpatient care have done a lot to make the children recovering from us not see the clinic as a scary place, but feel that they have arrived in a supportive, friendly environment. The Ronald McDonald Family Center represents another significant step forward for us in this work
– informed Zoltán Szabó, President of the Clinical Center of the University of Debrecen, at the opening.
After several years of planning, work began on the 170-square-foot, previously unused attic space in the fall of 2021. In addition to the complete static, water-gas, heating, electrical, and architectural workmanship, not only was a completely new interior designed but as part of the accessibility, the building’s elevator was moved up one level, right to the attic.
The new family center was created from donations from guests at domestic McDonald’s restaurants, restaurant chain operators, and other companies, organizations, and individuals. At the Family Center, the foundation’s staff is available to families during the day, and the facility is maintained jointly by the foundation and the Clinical Center.
Ágnes Vadnai, chairman of the board of the Ronald McDonald Children’s Aid Foundation, emphasized in her greeting that we would like a facility similar to Debrecen to be established in as many Hungarian hospitals as possible. The Debrecen family center is the 268th in the world. In the last 28 years, the Ronald McDonald Children’s Aid Foundation has accommodated 13,000 families in Hungary free of charge near hospitals for the duration of the long-term hospital treatment of children.
hirek.unideb.hu
