Caritas Hellas - Activities


			Social Service Refugees - Immigrants Nourishment Clothing Third Age Prisons Blood Donation Press Office Public Relations Research Office Volunteers are the soul of Caritas. Their generous offer of time and love towards people enables the creation and operation of all these programmes. WHY DON'T YOU TOO BECOME A VOLUNTEER OF LOVE?

Social Service The activities of this specific Service are: Feeding and food Distribution to families Once per month we distribute food to families of refugees and immigrants' families after proper valuation and according to specific Social Service criteria. Education for refugees and immigrants Almost 100 people, children and adults, participate in the educative programme, where they are taught Greek and English. Consultative Services The aim of the Consultative Services is to provide psychological support in circumstances of varied categories. For this purpose, these services collaborate with volunteers of different specialities (doctors, psychologists). Pharmaceutical Help Pharmaceutical help has been given in circumstances adjudicated necessary to poor families. Recreational Activities Christmas holidays for children of the educative programme, carnival party and summer camping on the islands Syros and Tinos and in Penteli with the cooperation of PIKPA. The above programmes are succored by volunteers, without whom the programmes would cease to exist. Refugees-Immigrants' Reception Centre For humanistic reasons the Social Service of CARITAS HELLAS offers its services to people that have been rejected as refugees by the U.N.O. and the Greek State and continue to stay in Greece. Nourishment In the CARITAS HELLAS centre, there is a restaurant that operates daily and offers hot meals for 250 refugees. Caritas Hellas'Migrant Feed Sector >From the first day of Caritas Hellas until today one of its basic concerns is the migrants feeding. Knowing that most of the arriving migrants face, apart from other problems, the inadequate or even non-existing feeding, Caritas Hellas considers the satisfaction of this need as a top priority. To this effect Caritas Hellas has two projects at work: a restaurant, in her own building, serving hot meals every day and foodstuff donations to families once a month. It is worth stressing the invaluable help of the first project through which about 250 people have lunch every day. The ever increasing number of migrants and their access to the restaurant, as it is in the center of the town, have made this project one of the most important and necessary of our Organization, all the more so because there aren't many such projects around. In the frame of the foodstuff distribution project we help new comers and problematic families on certain criteria and only for a certain time. The earthquake on September 7, 1999 seriously damaged Caritas Hellas' building and stopped all the above projects; we were deeply concerned about the future carrying out of the projects as our building was not safe to use. The people eating at the Restaurant were advised to turn to the equivalent project of the Sisters "Mother Teresa"; as for the foodstuff distribution it is carried out on the spot where many migrants live or in stores of our organization; in this way the donations used in these projects were not wasted but were used by the Sisters "Mother Teresa" and the distribution project carried out as above. Caritas Hellas praises the sensitivity and kindness of donators and stresses that it can persevere in its projects thanks to them. Carrying out the feed projects without their support would be almost impossible. Clothing Clothing: In the centre used clothes are distributed three times/week to teen-agers and adults, whether they be Greeks or immigrants in need. Third Age ELDERLY - ITS SOCIAL, MEDICAL AND PASTORAL SIDE THE OFFERING OF INSTITUTIONS AND FOUNDATIONS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN GREECE Monday, April 3, 2000 Invitation to scientists to offer their voluntary work, by: Eng. Spiros LAGANAS, Director of Caritas Hellas Introduction, by: Dr. Stefanos PROVELEGHIOS, President of the Movement of Catholic Scientists in Greece (KIKEDE) The medical side of elderly, by: Dr. Georgia GARAGOUNI, Cardiologist - Pathologist The social side of elderly, by: Mrs. Irene PREKKA, Social Worker of Caritas Hellas The pastoral side of elderly, by Father Andreas VOUTSINOS, priest of St. John's parish of Psychico The institutions and foundations present their offering (slides), by: Sister Anna DOUNAVI, from the Sisters of Mercy VACATIONS FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE CARITAS HELLAS organizes vacations for elderly people, in three periods, at its VACATION CENTER FOR ELDERLY, in Nea Makri, Attica : 1st period : July, 3 - July, 22 2nd period : July, 22 - August, 11 3rd period : August, 11 - August, 30 For any information, please call Caritas Hellas' Secretariat Phone Nrs. ( +30 / 1 ) 52 47 879 & 52 46 637. Prisons Visits to prisoners by mass volunteers, clerics and monks. Which offers ethical and material help and is also the conjunctive link between the prisoners and their families. and is also the conjunctive link between the prisoners and their families. Blood Donation The main aim of this sector is the propulsion of blood donation and finding volunteer blood donors, mostly for covering the needs of people without families in perilous situations. This sector works as a part of Caritas Athens. Press Office Caritas Hellas issues a quarterly Information Bulletin with news on its in-house and outhouse activities. It includes articles of social and pastoral content. The Press Bulletin has a circulation of 2000 copies in Greek and English. Caritas Hellas has recently been connected Internet. The title is""Caritas Hellas' News"."Now people in Greece and worldwide may access and gain knowledge on Caritas Hellas activities. Public Relations The Service of Public Relations exposes and promotes the work of Caritas in Greece and outside: This Service communicates and keeps in touch with corresponding non-governmental native and foreign organisations, participating in manifestations and congresses of Caritas Europa and other foreign social conveyors. It has been created an excellent net of communication with many Greek and foreign companies installed in Greece and brings out very positive results in donation sector. Caritas Hellas takes part in the "refugees and immigrants' work group" of Caritas Europa, projecting its points of view about Greek reality and participating in the decision making brought later on in the European Parliament. In the level of social services, it has a very good collaboration in Greece with corresponding services of the Orthodox Church. Research Office Founded and operating for the past two years, its most important target is to give an impulse to the participation of Caritas Hellas in programmes financed by the European Union. International Conference of Caritas for the countries in Southeastern Europe and the ex-republics of OND Organized by Caritas Europe and Caritas Bulgaria Sofia, December 2-4, 1999 Participants: Representatives of Caritas from Albania, Armenia, Byelorussia, Georgia, Greece, FYROM, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Caritas Europe. Official guests at the opening: Mr. Denis Vienot - President of Caritas Europe Mr. Hermann Icking - Secretary General of Caritas Europe Caritas Hellas was represented by Mr. Spiros Laganas, Director of C.H. The participant countries have one common characteristic: Catholicism is a minority in them. All the participants agreed that we cannot have common projects for all the countries but such meetings are useful as they bring the existing problems to common knowledge. It was decided to continue but to have one special topic, defined in advance, for every meeting. So the participant countries in the Sofia meeitng must submit their proposed topic, for the next meeting in St.Petersburg, Russia, in September 2000, by the end of June. *Caritas Hellas' Participation in European Union's Projects* Since 1997 Caritas Hellas aims at the participation, if possible, in all the European Union Projects as we believe this participation helps a great deal in: a) the fulfillment of basic Caritas Hellas' purposes, like raising human dignity and studying the problems of material and spiritual indigence, b) the recognition of our Organization by making our work known not only in Europe but also in the whole world. A) 1997-1998 period: Participation, together with Caritas Diocesana di Roma and F.A.S.E. Madrid, in the project "Europe against AIDS - Comparative Survey on HIV/AIDS risk behaviors in a population of young marginalized people in 3 southern European cities: Athens-Rome-Madrid". The research was fixed at 400 marginalized high risk individuals younger than 30 years, taken at random in streets and squares; in Athens it was in Omonia, Victoria, Koumoumdourou squares and in the areas Exarchia and Railway terminus. The results were almost similar in the three cities: contamination was caused by heroin injection (65%) and the rest (35%) by other causes. Mrs. Manina Terzidou, Director of the Research Dpt of Hospital "Aiginition", studied the data and presented the final results at a special conference at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome on 6/7/98. Caritas Hellas presented the results of the research in the three cities (Mrs. Terzidou and Mr. Laganas). The whole research (Analysis and results) was printed in 10.000 copies and circulated in every European Union country. B) 1999-2000 period: Caritas Hellas with Rome, Madrid, Lisbon and Nimes proceeds to the second phase of the above project called "Prevention and Counseling". This phase is very difficult, as guidelines of prevention must be effectively passed to five-member high-risk groups. The final results will be announced in Rome, in March 2000 and will be published in the E.U. C) 1999-2000 period: Caritas Hellas participates in the project "European Seminar "Out-of-Hospital care of AIDS affected people in Europe"; other participant cities: Milan, Stockholm, Birmingham, Newcastle, Lisbon, Vienna, Madrid, Lyon and Munich. In this important research Caritas Hellas secured the collaboration of the "Special Infections Control Center" (K.E.E.L.) of the Ministry of Welfare; K.E.E.L. kindly appointed Dr. Rose-Marie Syllantavou, an expert in AIDS problems who had established a Hostel for AIDS patients in Salonica (the Hostel unfortunately never functioned). The research aims at gathering data on the numbers of AIDS sero-positives and patients, the Hospitals with AIDS departments, the Hospices (hostels admitting a restricted number and providing hospital care), the hostels and the so-called "Apartment", in all the above mentioned towns. Meetings will be held in all the above-mentioned towns; the final data will be submitted to the European Union. D) 2000-2001 period: Caritas Hellas participation in the European Project "Mental Health Social Exclusion", of the Mental Health Europe, concerning homeless and socially marginalized people having psycho-social problems. Participants in this project and in the preparation of the 6th Seminar in Athens, in September 2000: - Social Psychiatry and Psychic health Co - Mental Health Europe - Pantion University Social Intervention Project - Kallithea Municipality - Doctors of the World - "Routes" Magazine - European institute for the Homeless - Research institute "Ark" Caritas Hellas is a member of the Organization and the Public Relations committees. E) 2001-2001 period: Caritas Hellas, Caritas Ambrosiana of Milan, and AMI Fundacao Assistencia Medica International-Lisbon, participate in the European Project "Railway stations - Shelters for the homeless and the socially excluded".