The Cordelia Foundation was established in 1996 as with the aim to assist torture survivor and severely traumatized asylum seekers, refugees and their family members arriving in Hungary through psychiatric, psychotherapeutic, psychological treatment, psycho-social counseling.
The initiator of the Foundations activity is Dr Lilla Hárdi, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, who is the medical director and responsible professional coordinator of the organisation.
Cordelia is an accredited member of the Copenhagen-based network, the IRCT (International Rehabilitation and Research Council for Torture Victims). The Foundation received the public benefit status in 1998. The treatment of the psycho-social and somatic problems of this unique target group is a basic-service public-benefit task, and at present Cordelia is the only civil organization in Hungary which serves this role. The services of the Foundation thus supplement the national health care services through a comprehensive treatment-system. We finance our activity through grants and funds, our main donors are the EU and the UN’s OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).
Our professional team, consisting of therapists (psychiatrists, psychologists, non-verbal therapists) with multicultural experiences and training, generally treats the refugee clients at the reception centres. Their work is assisted by a social assistant and trained interpreters. Using our internationally acknowledged methods we treat annually 600-800 clients. We regularly provide training and supervision for professionals working with refugees.
The UNHCR has rewarded our work with the 2004 “Asylum prize”. In 2008, the committee of the Viennese ‘Sozial Marie, prize for social innovation’ chose the Foundation as one of the awarded organisations. In 2009, the National Immigration Agency acknowledged the services of the Foundation in the field of mental health treatment of refugees with a certificate.
