2023 Burns Supper Tickets go on Sale as 2022 Projects Detailed

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Photo by Zoltán Pelle (Pelle Photo)

With tickets having just gone on sale for the 26th Budapest Burns Supper on the evening of January 28, 2023, the organizing Robert Burns International Foundation has been reporting back on where it says the HUF 11.5 million that was raised at the 2022 event has been spent.

“The RBIF supported seven different projects in five different cities during 2022,” says RBIF board chairman Douglas Arnott. An e-letter has gone out to corporate sponsors and those who donated to the raffle and auction detailing the projects supported this year.

The projects are the Peter Cerny Foundation, Budapest (medical equipment for its fleet of premature baby ambulances); Mezőtúr Hospital Children’s Department, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County (air-conditioning for the central ward area); Sándor Péterfy Hospital Newborn and Infant Department, Budapest (Babylife BLF-2001G incubators for premature babies); Csongrád-Csanád County Hospital Pediatric Department, Hódmezővásárhely (Neopuff infant resuscitation device); Semmelweis University 2nd Dept. of Pediatrics, Budapest (Connex Spot Monitor, pressure-relieving mattresses); Szent Rafael Hospital Pediatric Department, Zalaegerszeg (Nihon Kohden multi-functional Life Scope bedside monitor); and the Csolnoky Ferenc Hospital Infant and Child Department, Veszprém (air-conditioning equipment and a fridge for storing vaccines, project still in progress).

The individual projects have “helped, in different ways, to raise the standard of pediatric medical care in Hungary,” the chairman says.

Traditional Celebrations

Robert (Rabbie) Burns, who lived from 1759 until July 21, 1796, is known as the National Poet of Scotland. The Saturday closest to his birthday, January 25, is traditionally marked with a Burns Supper in his honor.

It often follows a traditional form, including a meal of haggis with “champit neeps and tatties” (mashed swede and potatoes), the “Address to the Haggis” (one of Burns’ poems), the odd whisky or two, and traditional Scottish dancing and pipes and drums. With sponsors meeting the costs of the dinner in Budapest, the event here adds fundraising to the mix for its 300-plus guests. Tickets for the 2023 event are available through the foundation website, rbif.hu, which also includes more information on the supported projects and previous Suppers, and copies of its audited fundraising.

The Robert Burns International Foundation is a voluntary and overhead-free organization that has raised funds for child healthcare in Hungary since 1998. According to its website, it has completed 150-plus projects, supporting 30-plus hospitals across the country, and has attracted more than 5,000 sponsors.

A six-person board (full disclosure: Robin Marshall, editor-in-chief of the Budapest Business Journal, is a member) runs the RBIF. Accounting and the audit are handled by Moore Hungary and KPMG, respectively, as sponsors, ensuring transparency. Its patrons are the U.K. Ambassador to Hungary and the Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of December 2, 2022.

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