Trying to Help

I have been accused many times (unfairly in my opinion) of never posting positive stories about Greece and Greek people. I concede that it is not “balanced” in the sense that I post one positive story for every negative one but I would challenge anyone to be able to do that on a blog about Human Rights (or any other serious news blog).

Let me just state again for the record that I love Greece. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I have a wonderful, dynamic group of Greek friends who support me, keep me relatively sane and are people I never want to be without. There are many many good things about Greece but no-one can deny that it also has an appalling Human Rights record. And that’s what I am exposing here. This does not affect just immigrants and migrants. It affects all citizens of this country. I have written about gay rights, women’s rights, workers rights, the protection of children, education, environment, mental health rights… the list goes on and on.

There are many, many Greek and foreign individuals who are working hard on all these issues and are making a difference in big and small ways. Here’s a story about ordinary people trying to help homeless refugees from Afghanistan by converting abandoned municipal buildings in Athens and an unused property belonging to the Vatopaidi monastery, into shelters and soup kitchens. I applaud and support their efforts and hope that the authorities follows their example and actually makes a positive move for a change.

Hristos Roumpanis, a retired schoolteacher, is part of the lobby heading a grassroots drive to get the undocumented migrants and asylum seekers off the streets and out of deserted buildings in this area. He is trying to meet with Archbishop Ieronimos, the head of Greece’s powerful Orthodox Church.

“We checked with the land registry and discovered that this empty building belongs to the monastery of Vatopaidi,” Roumpanis said. “We want to ask the archbishop to intervene and speak with the monks on our behalf. If not a shelter, we could at least create a soup kitchen or reception centre – somewhere where they can spend a few hours during the day. The building is just sitting there, unused.”

Read the full article here

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