This Christmas Day is a day of celebration and love and the municipalities of Attica extend it to a day of solidarity, as they make sure that there is no house where the Christmas table will not be set and no family will be deprived of the necessities of these days.
Vulnerable groups, helpless elderly people, people who live alone and cannot help themselves and financially powerless families, have these days the priority in the care of the municipalities and Social Services lovingly took care to provide them with what will «warm» their Christmas. The actions of giving and solidarity throughout the previous period filled the Social Groceries, as ordinary citizens, institutions and businesses contributed to this social cause and «packages» of love with meat or turkey, oil, milk, potatoes, vegetables, with long-life food, and even with a king's pie in some municipalities, reached those citizens who are unable to cope, so that no one is excluded from the spirit of the days and everyone can enjoy the Christmas table today.
At the same time, the municipalities of Attica, in a joint action, collected toys, so that no child would miss his Christmas gift.
Finally, many municipalities in Attica organize soup kitchens, some of them even on Christmas Day, while the rest supplied yesterday and the day before yesterday the beneficiaries of the soup kitchens for today and tomorrow.
«Daily and steadily at their side»
In the municipality of Glyfada the distribution concerns about 2,000 residents. As explained to RES-MPA the appointed municipal councillor of Social Care and Solidarity Lena Denaksa, in the Social Grocery is registered 400 families, corresponding to about 1,500 people, but including some exceptional cases reached almost 2,000 those who received the Christmas «package» of love. This even included the oil produced by the municipality itself from the olive trees in and around the city.
«We try to do our best,» says Ms Denaksa and continues: «It's a difficult time of year, the needs are great and the quantities on offer are different this year, but the help to the Social Grocery from businesses, shops, individuals and our sponsors is steady. We serve those registered, but we also serve some extra families who suddenly find themselves in need. Every day we are consistently on the side of those who need us. We do it wholeheartedly and hope that soon the difficulties will be a thing of the past. Until then, however, we will stand by our fellow human beings in need.».
She then refers to the «Help at Home» programme, saying: «We also implemented it in quarantine and it was something unprecedented at the time, because we went house to house. We also have a daily soup kitchen, but back then it was also home-based, we had to get to each house with the essentials and food, and we do it. And here it is important to say that we are constantly at the side of the beneficiaries, not only on Christmas or Easter days. Their need is daily, so our concern must be daily, not only remembering them on the days of the holidays. And that is what the municipality is doing. It's a set of problems that these fellow citizens experience, since some may not have food, some may not have electricity, some may not be able to secure their medication.’.
On whether there is awareness among other citizens, he replies: «Yes, citizens are interested, they offer clothes, toys, there is also an offer from institutions, from the sports clubs of the city to the children. There is awareness in the people and even many people do it in a targeted way, that is, they call us to ask what we need to offer.».
And it concludes: «These days we have also collected toys through the action “We can all together” and Santa Claus will distribute them to the children, so that no one is left without his gift.».
«A chain of love is created»
One of the largest municipalities in the country, that of Peristeri, inevitably has to meet the needs of many people, as they exceed a thousand people. The deputy mayor of Social Care, Anastasios Theodorakos, tells APE-MPE:
«On social policy issues there is more awareness these days by everyone, but we are fighting a big battle all year round. We are running programmes for Social Grocery, Social Pharmacy and soup kitchen, home cooked food, programmes for psychological support, especially after the pandemic. We help vulnerable groups in our municipality, that is, those registered in our structures, but also people who are circumstantially in a difficult moment, I mean from one moment to the next someone who can find themselves in a very difficult situation, in a dead end. Our municipality stands by them 365 days a year. Social care is a top priority of our mayor. We have also created targeted programmes, such as ’From the first day by their side’ for single mothers, for single-parent families or for a couple facing serious problems, and from the first day the mother gives birth to her baby, we support her for a year with diapers, milk, a doctor, and we have even arranged for a midwife.“.
For the Christmas period, Mr Theodorakos stresses: «Clearly on these days the people who give are more aware. In fact, a chain of love is created, i.e. those who offer, those who administer and those who receive. This chain is built with trust, that is the necessary element. So many bad things happen every day, yet there are so many good people around us and I want to say this. There is giving to the Social Grocery, the love for vulnerable groups is enduring, to have a family have the necessities for the whole month. And now at the holidays it was important that the children also have their gift, that no child is left without a toy. We created for the holidays and those places where parents can take their child to play with different toys, without having to pay to get them. So that the children of economically weak families do not lose the joy of playing.».
And the deputy mayor of Peristeri adds: «Many times social work is not visible to many. However, it is visible to the people who receive the services and whom the municipality cares about in this difficult time. In fact, with social service we are building balance. Balances within the family and so the child is balanced, the child is balanced after school, the neighbourhood is balanced and ultimately society can be balanced.».
«We love what we do»
For his part, the person responsible for the social structures of the municipality of Maroussi, Petros Koniaris, stands on the love with which they carry out this work. «We love what we do. We do it with love. Besides, if we didn't love it, we wouldn't be good at what we do,» he tells the Athens-Macedonian News Agency and continues: «I am closing five years in this position of president of the Social Policy and Solidarity Organization of the Municipality of Maroussi, as in our country it is a Legal Entity of Public Law. I have therefore become attached to the work we offer as a municipality. The needs are constantly growing, especially after the pandemic. So it is only natural that we run every day to support around 400 people on a regular basis.
Referring to this Christmas period, Mr. Koniaris says: «Vulnerable families are a part of our borough that have found themselves in a difficult position, as anyone can. The municipality stands by their side all year round and of course these days. We made sure to provide them with gift vouchers for the necessary shopping for the days and 400 bags for the families of the Social Grocery with things from the sponsorships. There's also Help at Home, which involves about 60 homes, and the city also takes care of those people who are physically weak or helpless lonely people. And finally there is the daily soup kitchen, which continues normally through the holidays, just on Christmas Eve they received food for all three days.“.
And as an epilogue, Mr. Koniaris adds: «What matters most is that there is not a person in our municipality who does not have to eat at Christmas and does not have the necessities of the holidays.».
Dem. Vassilopoulos
