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Greece is at a historical cross-roads as discussions between the government and its Eurozone partners and creditors have stalled while waiting for a referendum on the conditions of the repayment of the debt. Meanwhile Greek citizens continue to struggle with their everyday life amidst increasing poverty and social fatigue. Caritas Greece is present, accompanying and supporting the most in need among them.

Fr Antonios Voutsinos, President of Caritas Greece is aware of the dramatic moments Greece is going through. “This country currently finds itself in a chaotic situation. Banks are closed and people have no money.The situation is getting worse every day. We are living through historic moments that we would never imagine we would ever witness. Caritas Hellas tries to help as much as possible to relieve the people in need, inspite of having very little means available,” he said.

Flora and her two children are among those that Caritas Greece is helping. As millions of other vulnerable families, austerity measures impacted their life very negatively. From one day to another Flora found herself in a situation where she could not make ends meet at the end of each month. Moreover the state stopped providing services and support anyone would expect from a welfare state of the European Union.

In 2008 Flora had a job that paid well. She could afford to rent a house where the kids had their own room. Then the crisis triggered off. Jobs became scarcer, wages dropped. The family had to move to a smaller appartment with only one room. Now they all sleep in the living room. “The children have no proper space to study, have their toys and sit,” she explained.

Making ends meet every month is impossible for Flora. The only work she has been able to find is four hours a week and pays €275 per month. Caritas helps the family financially. “I have never been so frustrated. I wish to have a decent salary to live from my work without been depending on the help of Caritas or others,” she said. Find out more about the Flora’s story here.

Years of austerity measures have caused enormous social and economic damages to Greeks. Unemployment is today almost 27%. Youth unemployment almost 60%, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has contracted by 25% in five years leading to severe social costs.

“I can think of no depression, ever, that has been so deliberate and had such catastrophic consequences,” said Josef Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics, recently in an opinion piece published in The Guardian. Adding to this, over 90% of the total amount of the debt money that Greece received was actually used to save the banks in creditor countries, notably Germany and France; Greeks have seen just crumbs of the €350 billion rescue package. A situation that Caritas has been denouncing since the beginning of the implementation of the bailout programme, as Caritas Greece’s Begoña Kastiella witnessed in this video on 22 July 2012.

“The great ideas which once inspired Europe seem to have lost their attraction, only to be replaced by the bureaucratic technicalities of its institutions,” said Pope Francis when addressing the European Parliament last November. A call that apparently fell on deaf ears as the European partners of Greece are giving the cold shoulder to Greece’s request to restructure its debt and repay it at a slower pace to allow the country to grow again, both economically and socially. A proposal another creditor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), does support however.

“Greece should have a 20-year grace period before making any debt repayments and final payments should not take place until 2055. It would need €10 billion to get through the next few months and a further €50 billion after that,” said the IMF as reported by The Guardian on 2 July.

Meanwhile the amount of poor and excluded people keeps growing, touching 37.5% of the population. Caritas tries to cope with the needs of as many as possible, to empower them, give them hope and help them to overcome their feeling of having lost absolutely everything, included their dignity as human beings.

Dignity is a fundamental value for Fr. Voutsinos: “Our Holy Father stated that what really matters is the dignity of the human being; the dignity of the people. I think that Europe must return to the values of solidarity, democracy and mutual respect. People are not numbers and their lives cannot be less important than economic factors and figures. Europe must avoid to pit people against each other. Such situations can only result in increasing inequality between rich and poor throughout Europe.”

Full article.