Greece’s economic crisis has been worldwide news for some time, but a CNN report showed how dire conditions are for some Greeks who are going without good. In a report headlined Greeks Go Hungry as Austerity Bites, the station told the harrowing story of a widowed father with three children that is being supported by a charity.
The father, Antonios Antakis, hasn’t had a steady job for years, lost his wife to TB and now struggles to support his kids. Charities try to help, but as CNN’s Diana Magnay reported, Greek people have less to give.
Antakis says that he works 10 days a month and described how cruel is everyday life. Poumbini Terzaki, a Child and Family Association official, said that last year people were offering food packages but now they give only some pieces of food, unable to do more.
Worsened by austerity measures demanded by international lenders in return for loans, the unemployment rate is a record 26 percent,, some 55 percent for those under 25, and many Greeks are surviving only because of the high rate of home ownership which means they don’t have to pay rent. But soaring tax hikes, reduced salaries and slashed pensions have pushed nearly two million people into poverty, and hunger.
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