The Suffering of Greek Children Increases

April 13, 2013 • 11:00AM

The latest report, made public by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), on the well-being of children in so-called rich countries, ranked Greece 25th out of 29 countries. The United States is 26th. The Netherlands ranked first overall, followed by Norway and Iceland. Romania was last.

In Greece, UN reports are not needed to expose the fact that children are endangered by the financial oligarchy. There are no hard statistics on the state of hunger in Greece, but more and more anecdotal evidence shows it is widespread. The blog keeptalkinggreece notes that in Crete there are reports and pictures of students looking for food in garbage cans. One incident was mentioned by the president of the Association of Teachers of Heraklion, Crete's capital, during a meeting with the city council. "The incident is not isolated," the president said, adding that "many parents confess to teachers the economic hardship they live in, while they are often unable to offer their children even a meal." Teachers of Heraklion indicated that there has been a growing number of malnourished schoolchildren, and asked municipalities to take action, as many parents are ashamed to ask for help. With the economic collapse and the malnourished students in Cretan schools, "the need for soup kitchens in schools is imperative," the teachers association stressed.

While the government announced long ago that it would offer a program for breakfast at schools, nothing has materialized yet.

The reason is not hard to find. The Economic and Social Council of Greece (OKE), headed by former trade unionist Christos Polyzogopoulos, reports that wages of private sector workers have been reduced by as much as 40%. As for the self-employed, as many as 400,000 are struggling and have fallen behind payments to their monthly social insurance dues — up from 90,000 in 2009.