By Roumpini Terzaki | Project Leader
Dear Friends,
Thankfully it is with a sense of hope that we are able to report back to you. Although the situation in Greece has not in any way improved and we see that all the more Greek families are slipping into the sad statistics of poverty, we are nevertheless so grateful for your support and the support of our volunteers.
Unfortunately families are no longer in a position to support each other and organizations like ours have come to replace the traditional family support system. With your help, against all odds, we continue to distribute food and basic supplies to more than 5000 families throughout the country as part of our Hunger Relief programme. The amount of families needing help and asking to be included into our Emergency Relief Packages project are growing on a daily basis and it is extremely difficult to keep up with the relentless results of the austerity measures. More and more families are facing poverty every day! Together with the housing problem where families are losing their homes due to extremely high taxation and the rise of unemployment there is the problem of health care as the system cannot keep up with the growing health problems caused by the huge amount of refugees carrying fatal diseases that had long been eradicated in Europe.
For this reason we have introduced our H.U.G (Humans United Globally) project where refugees and local residents are learning to live and work together through art, music and sports workshops. Our goal is to motivate both groups to participate as volunteers and to strenghthen the relationship between both the poverty stricken Greek families and the war torn Refugees.
H.U.G is supporting and empowering our “emergency relief packages”, with free workshops for social integration of the families in need, psychological support specialisted on selfharming , unfortunately very often affecting kids. We are also trying to deal with the serious problem of students that have gained entrance to the University in Athens but are unable to attend because they have no where to live or even the basics to live by.
In 2014 there were 18 student residencies with a staff of 48 for every 300 students
In 2017 there are only 4 student residencies with a staff of 7 for every 500 students
The general consensus is that our youth is not able to get an education!!
A part of it has been refurbished to offer students that don't have the means to find a home away from home. Although it is a drop in the ocean we have come to realize a valuable lesson and that is if we all work together, if we are united in a common goal, a drop turns into a puddle and in turn flows into a stream only to become a forceful river of change. It is this change that we are so desperately working towards and everyday we are witness to the profound difference help in any form makes to so many lives.
TOGETHER YOURS AND OUR EMERGENCY HELP CAN BRING RELIEF TO THIS DISASTER
We call on you to help us with your donations in order to ensure we have products and supplies for our distributions. Together we can create an enormous HUG of solidarity that can start from Greece and reach all people.
Please help us continue hoping that TOGETHER we can help ALL young children and students in Greece to survive, to be educated and to dream of a better and brighter future.
By Roumpini Terzaki | Project leader
By Roumpini Terzaki | Project Leader
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