The Smile of the Child Director Costas Giannopoulos said that the 11 refuge homes in Athens might need to close within months because companies can no longer afford to sponsor these. Speaking to Sky News, he said: “It’s devastating. 380 children are expecting us to continue their lives, so there is no way we can abandon them for a second time.”
Giannopoulos used to own two successful IT companies before starting the Smile of the Child – a charity dedicated to children at the request of his late five-year-old son Andreas who died from cancer 20 years ago.
The charity has grown to become one of Greece’s largest. Apart from the refuge homes there is a 24-hour helpline and mobile medical units. Some of the children are abandoned because their parents can not afford to raise them. Others are taken into care because their parents are addicts or violent.
How to save the Smile of the Child…
Background
“The Smile of the Child” has supported more than 1 million children and families through welfare, medical care and direct intervention activities in 20 years of internationally recognized work and thanks to the support of the Greek society. However, today people in Greece are no longer able to continue supporting us! People in Greece that were supporting us until yesterday, today find themselves and their children in need of our support and assistance!
