No home,no school: A small boy begs in Athens
by David Collins, Daily Mirror, 11/01/2012
Poverty-stricken families in Greece are so hard up some have abandoned their children.
Charities in Athens are reporting a big rise in the number of youngsters dumped by parents unable to make ends meet following the Euro crisis.
In one case a four-year-old was found by a teacher in the capital with a letter reading: “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.”
An Athens youth centre, the Ark of the World, has revealed that it has had four children left on its doorstep in recent months – including a newborn baby.
One mum, who told staff she was homeless and in desperate need of help, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter, Natasha.
Centre founder Fr Antonios Papanikolaou said: “Over the last year we’ve had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us.
“They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need.”
Another desperate mum, who would only give her name as Maria, sobbed as she told how was forced to give up her child after losing her job and being out of work for more than a year.
She said: “Every night I cry alone at home, but what can I do? It hurt my heart, but I didn’t have a choice.” Maria told how she spent her days and nights looking for work which meant she had to leave her eight-year-old, Anastasia, alone for hours at a time.
The two of them lived on food handouts from the church and Maria’s weight plummeted. In the end she decided to put Anastasia into foster care with a charity called SOS Children’s Villages.
She said: “I can suffer through it but why should she have to?” Maria now has a job in a cafe but makes just £16 a day and still cannot afford to reclaim her daughter.
Stergios Sifnyos, the charity’s director of social work, said: “The relationship between Maria and Anastasia is very close. You might think it is hard to understand why they have to be apart.
“But it’s very difficult for the mother when she’s not sure she’ll have a job in the next few days.” He said most of the children being left at the charity’s centres were abandoned due to economic reasons.
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