Greek Mothers Placing Children in Charity Centers Due to Destroyed Economy UPDATED

With five children, they struggled to survive on social security of £400 a month, boosted by odd jobs in the black economy. They want proper work, but there are few jobs.

Olga’s widowed mother tried to protect the family, providing food and funds from her own meagre benefits as a cancer patient. Sadly, it was not enough – and so for more than a year Nicolas, his eight-year-old brother and seven-year-old sister have been sent to Zanneio, an hour from their home on the other side of Athens.

The couple admitted it was incredibly painful. ‘It was so hard, incredibly hard, especially at the start,’ Olga says. ‘I could hardly bear it. The children have got used to it. The one consolation is they seem happier now and their teachers are very kind and caring.’

The Eleftheriadous’ story highlights the harshness of life in modern Greece, where the economy is in freefall – it is still shrinking at five per cent a year – and the unemployment rate is the highest in Europe.

Almost a third of adults are jobless, along with two-thirds of under-25s. But even those in work struggle. Private sector wages have fallen by 30 per cent in four years and painful new taxes have been imposed as the country is crucified by its adherence to the euro.

In the few days I was in Athens, Greece was demoted by the financial markets from ‘developed nation’ to ‘emerging market’ status, a human rights group condemned the appalling scapegoating of migrants and the state broadcaster ERT was switched off by the government to cut costs.

The closure of ERT shocked Greeks and reminded outsiders of the scale  of the country’s crisis. The move  shattered the fragile three-party governing coalition with the smallest  pulling out – and could force the third general election in just over a year.

Under the EU-imposed austerity programme, Greece must lose 150,000 of its 800,000 public sector jobs, many the product of political patronage and a key cause – alongside rampant tax evasion – of the huge debts dragging down this nation of 11 million.

Such is the scale of the crisis that Greece’s economic contraction is already twice as deep as Britain’s during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Little wonder staff at Zanneio – which sits amid the beautiful villas of film stars, financiers and even a former prime minister – have seen so many heartbreaking cases.

One family was forced to put four children aged between six and 14 in the home after the father’s restaurant went bust with such big debts he was jailed under hardline new laws and their mother was unable to cope.

An angelic-looking 11-year-old girl told me how much she looked forward to seeing her mother each Friday. Her father was dead, her mother unemployed and unable to afford her upkeep; she had been there two years already. Such cases upset those involved in childcare. ‘It is not in the Greek culture for families to split up,’ said Menelaos Tsaoussis, 45, the foundation’s former director. ‘These situations are so traumatic for the families.’

Another charity last year reported four children, including a newborn baby, dumped on its doorstep. One toddler was found holding a note saying: ‘I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.’

The Child’s Smile, a Greek charity for families in crisis, said it helped 10,927 children last year with emergency supplies of food, clothes, shoes, school books and psychological support. The previous year, the number was 4,465.

‘We used to have people only from the lowest economic level but now we are seeing people from upper middle levels when they lose their jobs and have nowhere to go,’ said Tania Schiza, a social worker with the group.

Often these ‘new poor’ are reluctant to seek support, worsening their plight.

‘We have some cases where families who used to donate money have become victims of the crisis.
‘Now they come to us for help,’ said Schiza.

‘All of these families are deeply disappointed. They feel whatever they do, nothing can be done to change their circumstances in the crisis.’

Other charities told similar stories. SOS Children’s Villages helped 47 families five years ago; today it is helping 900 and opening new centres across Greece to stave off family breakdown amid soaring poverty.

Many turning to them are from formerly prosperous middle-class families; among the restaurant owners, shopkeepers and businessmen was one senior executive with a major company who had lost his job.

Like all such groups, it strives to keep families together. Despite this, with financial pressures growing more intense by the day as savings dwindle and firms collapse, a handful of children in its homes have been given up by impoverished parents.

This is a major shift in Greek society over the past three years,’ said Pavlos Salihos, a teacher and trained psychologist at the children’s village in Vari. ‘We never had cases like this before; it was just social problems such as drug abuse.’
Another official with SOS Children’s Villages said some youngsters were in such bad shape they could barely talk. One school said one in six of its students suffered malnutrition. In others teachers have started handing out fruit, sandwiches and milk. A public health body believes food security levels in Greece have fallen to those of some African countries. Social workers said they look out for children who simply give up on school work, the first sign of mental trauma caused by the crisis.

Suicide rates and mental health problems across all ages have risen sharply over the past three years; on my previous visit, I came across a woman who had lost her job and was threatening to jump from her office. One newspaper has said Greece was a ‘society on the verge of a nervous breakdown’.

Ironically, the image has grown of Greeks as feckless and lazy, although studies have found more entrepreneurs per head and longer working hours than elsewhere in Europe.

But to make matters worse, as demand soars from desperate parents, the maelstrom that has engulfed Greece is making it harder for cash-strapped charities to keep such centres open.

On Friday, the day I visited, the foundation that runs Zanneio was marking its closure and merger with another group; the buildings have been bought by the church for training priests.