Posted on September 5, 2012

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Awards $12.4 Million to Support Children's Services in Greece

The Athens-based Stavros Niarchos Foundation has announced three grants totaling approximately $12.4 million (€10 million) to help bolster programs and services for children and families in Greece that have been severely affected by the ongoing economic crisis there.

The latest installment of a three-year, €100 million grantmaking initiative by the foundation designed to help address mounting social needs in the country includes €4.5 million ($5.65 million) in support of nursery schools and childcare centers. The grant will enable an additional three thousand children to enroll in day care at a time when demand for childcare services is up 43 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Following a successful pilot program involving 6,272 students earlier this year, the foundation, which to date in 2012 has awarded €41 million ($51.5 million) through the initiative, awarded a second grant of €5.3 million ($6.6 million) to Prolepsis to support an expansion of the organization's food aid and nutrition education program in schools during the 2012-13 academic year. Prolepsis will use the funds to serve at least eighteen thousand students in areas and neighborhoods affected by the crisis.

In addition, the foundation awarded €200,000 (more than $251,000) to Mission Anthropos to provide immunizations for more than a thousand children without access to basic healthcare services.