“Sixty school children at 1. Gymnasium of Acharnon do not get enough to eat.” This shocking news I read today at the website of Boroume.gr, a network that helps distributing surplus food to the needy.
Sixty children, aged 13-15, out of 313 in total, do not bring any snack from home, neither do they buy anything from the school canteen.
1. Gymnasium Acharnon
No wonder that children do not get enough to eat. According to EUROSTAT data released on Tuesday, 31% of the Greeks are in risk of poverty due to austerity and recession.
The report of boroume-volunteers, who visited the school, brings up only a tiny part of the drama these children and their families experience day in, day out.
“Many children visit the office of director on Monday morning and ask for something to eat. After they spent the weekend at home. When the director gives them some milk, they don’t keep it for later but drink it all at once.”
The director of the school asked the help of boroume.gr, after he realised, that there was not much he and the teachers could do on voluntarily basis due to the high number of children in need.
“The school did not remain inactive to the plight of the people. It started the operation of a social ‘groceries shop’ in the school in order to supply the children in need with food stuff on a weekly basis and to alleviate the families.”
However the appeal of the school to neighborhood stores and bakeries remained without respond. Only one local manufacturer of dairy products agreed to supply the social shop with yogurt and milk twice a week. Supplies that are not enough to cover all the needs.
“We left the school feeling the burden of teachers who worry about their students but also the difficulties the parents who are either unemployed or do not receive their already low salaries on time.”
How you can help
If you want to help the children and the school social shop, following items are needed:
packed food items of long duration
for children’s brunch: cereal bars, fruits, biscuits, slices of turky, cheese and bread for toasts, juices, long-duration milk
also: toiletries and cleaning items
Address and contact details of the school
1. Gymnasium Acharnon, Liosion street 44, Acharnai, (Northwestern Athens).
School director: Charalambos Pallis
Phone number: +30 210 2469072
Email: [email protected]
news source: boroume.gr website
KTG’s article about Boroume.gr posted end of 2012.
Is there any way you could assist them in setting up a PayPal account?
The easiest way to donate money I can think of. All donors would need is their email address which you have already posted.
Just a thought.
Good idea, but I refrain from dealing with other people’s money issues. a paypal account would mean they have to have a website and somebody to promote their cause. why don’t you email them this brilliant idea?
This is a situation that should never be allowed to happen, there is simply no excuse for it. What I do not understand however is the reaction from the school. Setting up social shops etc is great, but… it does in fact teach the young people that in times of trouble they should go looking for others to help them out. Why go and look for help from outside? Why not use this sad situation and turn it in to a positive experience for everybody. Surely, the school could introduce cooking lessons, even as an extra curricular activity, and teach the young people in the school to make healthy nutritious food, which could then in turn be used to feed the undernurished school mates.
Making energy bars e.g. is very simply, dirt cheap, and they are highly nutritious. And, as an added bonus, the home made ones don’t come with a load of polluting plastic packaging around them… The children learn not just the skill of cooking , but also the value in helping themselves, the value of community activity and the value of sharing… All at very little cost to anybody.