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Anastasia Balezdrova

156 donations amounting to 50 million euro for charity have been reported by "Stavros Niarchos" Foundation, which is half of the money the management board granted a year ago to help disadvantaged people to deal with problems caused by the economic crisis.

In order for the amounts to reach the specific targets, the Foundation sought the assistance of non-governmental organizations dealing with the problem for years.

With the financial support of the non-governmental organization "Praxis" Foundation, it was able to help homeless people, to prevent others from finding themselves in the same situation and especially to encourage them to return to the job market.

As the chairman of "Praxis" Tzanetos Antipas states, nearly two thousand people have been attending the newly established centres for daily support of homeless. "We are talking about people who have no shelter. So far, no official census has been carried out but their number is around 1,999 people".

He says that the main task of "Praxis" is preventive, namely to reduce the number of those who are likely to find themselves in the same situation. "We support families whose members are unemployed with the help of experts. The majority of the families have obligations to banks and they are unable to cope with them, and our consultants interfere at this point. They not only help them to put the payment of obligations in order but also to return to the job market".

Within 11 months, 2,605 families sought the help of "Praxis". Of these, 703 had been approved and 240 families or 34% completed the programme. The results are really impressive. In the beginning, 85% of families were buried under obligations, which they could not pay. After completing the programme, 81% of them do not have any obligations. At the same time, 172 families are working and that is "the strongest incentive to continue," says Tzanetos Antipas.

The purpose of "Praxis" is to increase the number of supported families to 520 per month.

Unemployment among parents inevitably leads to a reduction in the family budget for the provision of food. After the information about children who go to school without a breakfast or have no money to buy something from the canteen was announced, "Stavros Niarchos" Foundation turned to the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health "Prolepsis".

As a result of this collaboration, nearly twenty thousand students in public primary and secondary schools located in Greek regions that the crisis has affected seriously receive a healthy breakfast every day. "It consists of a sandwich and a fruit. The sandwich is prepared especially from healthy products following the recipes of experts. In addition, the children receive a pack of milk three times a week," states Prolepsis’ representative Aphrodite Veloudaki.

In her opinion, the sandwich covers 20 to 30% of the daily energy needs of the children. "Since the beginning of the programme, we have given away more than one million breakfasts. However, our programme has another impact on the families: on the one hand, children who had not been drinking milk and refused to eat fruits are now doing it with appetite as a result of our campaign for healthy eating. On the other hand, some of the pupils who had stopped going to school have returned to it because of the breakfast, which is very positive".

Healthcare is the third area to which the "Stavros Niarchos" Foundation attaches great importance. A five-year programme begins with the support of the polyclinic in the Olympic Village, which will provide residents of remote islands in the Aegean Sea, polluted areas as well as unemployed, poor, drug addicts, disabled, immigrants and Roma with health services.

Two mobile diagnostic centres equipped with the most modern equipment are to be purchased that will visit the problematic areas once every two months. "They will remain there for a period of 5-8 days during which physicians of all specialties will examine the local people. Our goal is to examine 40 -50 people daily. When a serious health problem is diagnosed, the patient will be taken to one of the hospitals in Athens, with which we are currently developing the network of cooperation," says the person in charge of the programme and an orthopaedic surgeon Panagiotis Koulouvaris.

He states that at first, some of the islands did not take seriously the attempts of the polyclinic to contact them. The fact that none of the women living on many of the remote islands had ever undergone mastography and Pap tests is indicative of the pressing need for the implementation of the programme.

As the president of the management board of the Foundation Andreas Drakopoulos states, "the child is in the basis of our attention". That is why the Foundation supports the Centre for Child Protection "I Mittera" (The Mother) by providing funds for the repair of the premises, construction of playgrounds and for the appointment of additional personnel: physicians, social workers and support staff.

According to director Dimitris Vezirakis, the centre received 665 children last year. Today, it supports 470 children 170 of which are housed in the centre’s premises.

"Our goal is primarily to return the children to their families and we consider the option of them being adopted or raised in foster families only when this is not possible," he says.

The data also indicate that in the majority of cases, the children leave the centre to go back to their families. "Greeks do not abandon their children due to the crisis. The main factors are different. In the majority of cases, they are single mothers who either are drug addicts or have a very low educational level, or suffer from psychological problems. The other category is families who abandon their children as they were born with a disability. However, there is an increase in the number of children," he adds.

The Foundation promotes education too, especially when it is combined with opportunities to develop production and business activities. In this regards, it cooperates with the U.S. Agricultural School of Thessaloniki. It conducts workshops for young people who want to deal with agriculture. "Our goal is to train 100 people a year. The training consists of theoretical and practical courses and there is significant interest in it - one third of the participants are women and two thirds are residents of Thessaloniki who want to move to the countryside and to go in for farming," says the school director Panos Kanelis.
 
"Stavros Niarchos" Foundation presented its scholarship programme for universities in Canada, which is supported by the embassy of the country in Athens.

The presentation was attended by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the mayors of Athens and Thessaloniki George Kaminis and Yiannis Boutaris, members and friends of the Foundation.