“The Smile of the Child” welcomes at its premises in Athens an Australian delegation of Members of Parliament
30 April 2018
PRESS RELEASE
Athens, 30 April 2018
“The Smile of the Child” welcomes at its premises in Athens an Australian delegation of Members of Parliament
On the 23rd of April, members of Parliament from Australia visited the premises of “The Smile of the Child”, and more specifically the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and YouSmile-the European Student Volunteer Network of the Organization. The delegation was welcomed by the President of the BoD of “The Smile of the Child”, Mr. Costas Yannopoulos and the scientific personnel of the Organization who briefed our visitors on the services and actions of the Organization in Greece.
The parliamentarians, headed by John Pantazopoulos, Honorary Secretary General of the The World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association (WHIA) and former Member of the Victorian Parliament, showed particular interest in the direct work of the Organization, through which 95.765 children and their families were supported in the course of 2017 nationwide.
The discussion was focused on the enormous efforts of “The Smile of the Child” to fill in the gaps in the field of child care and protection in crisis-hit Greece by complementing the work of the state-run services and cooperating through special Memoranda of Understanding and certified procedures with all the institutional actors.
Emphasis was also given to the need of the Organization to balance its longstanding actions for children and the needs of thousands of refugee and migrant minors and their families arriving with great intensity in Europe since 2015 mainly from conflict-worn countries.
The meeting gave the opportunity to the members to understand the spirit of the Organization and to learn more about the actions and the challenges on the ground. In addition, the delegation from Australia recognized the positive example of “The Smile of the Child” not only for the Greek society, but also globally as a model organization that exchanges its know-how and expertise with third countries.
In this context, they recognized the importance of the Greek Diaspora to continue and step up its support to civil society Organizations such as “The Smile of the Child”, which has been providing steadily and over the past 22 years quality and holistic actions and services that make the difference for thousands of children and their families at risk or in need.
Apart from John Pantazopoulos, the delegation from Australia included Mr. Khalil Eideh, Member of the Parliament of Victoria and Deputy President of the Legislative Council, Mr. Richard Dalla-Riva, Member of the Parliament of Victoria and Mrs. Sadie Gekas.
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