Open Society Foundation: Greek solidarity projects
(Brussels 05 April) The Open Society Foundations have launched different projects this week to show solidarity with Europe, and particularly with those in Greece who are hardest hit by the economic crisis and continue to suffer its effects.
The human cost of the crisis in Europe is immense and growing. Exacerbated by fierce and often violent hostility towards the most vulnerable in society, those in Greece are acutely affected. People are having difficulty making ends meet, are losing their jobs and even their homes. Those people who suffer the most played no role in the crisis. They include workers who pay payroll taxes, the unemployed, the mentally and physically disabled, the elderly, pensioners and bankrupted small business owners, and migrants and asylum seekers. You can read some of their stories here.
The Open Society Foundations is undertaking many important endeavours on the ground in Greece and has established SolidarityNow as a collaborative funding initiative to support civil society groups working in Greece and to set up Solidarity Centres to facilitate cooperative community solutions to the social and economic needs of local populations.
SolidarityNow has been created because the Open Society Foundations believes that to emerge from the crisis, Europe must reclaim its vision of a community based on solidarity. Visit www.solidaritynow.org, which includes a short film (also in French, German, Spanish and Greek) that it is hoped can positively contribute to the public debate on Greece’s future.
