The SNF’s Initiatives Against the Greek Crisis Are Almost Completed

The SNF grant covers, the installation of 2 new state-of-the-art linear accelerators. It is worth mentioning that one of the two linear accelerators will offer stereotactic radiotherapy services and as such will be the only accelerator of its kind in a public hospital in Greece.

The 401 Military Hospital of Athens is the biggest military hospital in Greece, with a staff of 1,000 members and a capacity of 550 beds. In addition to military personnel, the hospital’s Radiotherapy Department is accessible to civilians, who account for 60% of all patients using the department’s services. The services of the 2 new linear accelerators, covered by the SNF’s grant, will be accessible to members of the general public.

This grant is part of the SNF’s Initiative Against the Greek Crisis, totaling €200 million, which is now almost complete.

The initiative, which was initially announced in 2012, consisted of two emergency grant programs, totaling €100 million each, and aimed to help alleviate the severe consequences of the socioeconomic crisis and assist those most in need to navigate through these difficult circumstances in the least painful way possible.

Through a total of 555 grants, the SNF supported social welafre programs that provided assistance to the most vulnerable social groups, while in the meantime ensuring the sustainability of hundreds of nonprofit Greek organizations, whose programs have multiple positive effects for the Greek society, in an effort to create a stable framework of support, with duration, consistency and long-term potential.

As part of this initiative, the SNF supported programs, throughout the entire country, that combat poverty and social exclusion, support households in debt and food security programs for vulnerable groups. Additional grants were implemented to tackle unemployment through employment services, the provision of temporary accommodation and housing, as well as the provision of comprehensive and free health services.

As part of the Initiative, the SNF also supported the Radiotherapy Program, totaling €20 million, for the procurement and installation of 10 linear accelerators in 7 public hospitals in Greece. At the same time, the grant also supports the free maintenance of each linear accelerator for two years, plus training programs for hospital personnel to ensure optimal operation of the radiotherapy equipment. Until now, a total of 6 linear accelerators have been delivered and are operational, while the remaining 4 accelerators are expected to be operational by early fall.

In the health sector, as part of the initiative, the SNF implemented a grant to the National Center for Emergency Care (EKAV), totaling €14 million, for the procurement of 143 state-of-the-art and fully equipped ambulances, as well as their full service and maintenance for a period of 8 years. The grant has been completed and the complete fleet of ambulances has been distributed for operation to EKAV’s branches across Greece, while EKAV crew members were also trained in the operation of the new vehicles.

Moreover, as part of the same initiative, the SNF implemented grants, totaling €20 million, to the Municipality of Athens and the Municipality of Thessaloniki. The €10 million grant to the Municipality of Athens entailed among others the support of educational programs with the goal of strengthening local schools and neighborhoods, the upgrading of school infrastructure, the support of social integration programs for vulnerable groups, the upgrade of the Commercial Triangle in the city center, as well as the operation of the Observatory for Refugees and Immigrants.

Respectively, the €10 million grant to the Municipality of Thessaloniki included the support of housing programs and programs combating homelessness, the implementation of technological and cultural innovation programs, the implementation of educational programs, and the financing of infrastructure projects.

In 2013, and while the initiative against the crisis was already underway, the SNF announced a new initiative, totaling €100 million, for Recharging the Youth, with a strategic and long-term goal, to create new opportunities for Greece’s younger generations, which are severely impacted by the alarming unemployment rate. As part of this initiative, which is at its final stages of completion, 75 grants have been implemented, entailing the support of programs for young scientists in 7 research centers and 4 universities through a €29.5 million grant, the support of internship programs in Greece and abroad, as well as the recent SNF grant, totaling almost €24.5 million, which aims at training and developing a new generation of farmers and supporting agriculture and food entrepreneurs.

The initiatives, totaling €300 million, were implemented in addition to the Foundation’s regular grant-making activities.

The co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Andreas Dracopoulos, stated: “Our belief that all citizens have the right to dignity, security and hope, motivates us to constantly strive to contribute, to the extent of our capabilities, towards creating a better tomorrow for all, working in an auxiliary and complementary manner, for the establishment of a welfare society. We continue our philanthropic activity in Greece and abroad for the creation of a more humane and just society for all.“

With these SNF initiatives almost completed, and following the delivery of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center to the Greek society in February of 2017, the SNF has now turned its attention to the implementation of its new initiative for Supporting Greece’s Health Sector, with an initial budget expected to exceed €200 million. The SNF is exclusively funding a series of infrastructure and education projects throughout Greece. The launch of these major grants was marked by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Greek State and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which was signed on March 21, 2018, at the Maximou Megaron. The MoU was signed between the Greek Prime Minister, Mr. Alexis Tsipras, and the Co-President of the SNF, Mr. Andreas Dracopoulos.

Specifically, the new SNF grant initiative includes the following projects: 
The design, the construction and the outfitting of a new building for the General Hospital of Komotini

•The design, the construction and the outfitting of a Children’s Hospital in Thessaloniki

•The design, the construction and the outfitting of a building to be erected in the current location of the buildings “Oikos Adelfon” (Sisters House) and “Adelfon Nosokomon” (Nursing Sisters) in the premises of the General Hospital “Evangelismos”, in order for it to serve as the Chair of the University’s Faculty of Nursing

•The procurement and the installation of equipment for the General Hospital “Evangelismos”

•The procurement of new equipment, as well as the maintenance of existing equipment, with the aim of strengthening the capability and efficiency of the National Center for Emergency Care’s (EKAV) air ambulance services

•The procurement and the installation of special medical equipment (PET – Positron emission tomography and the creation of radiopharmaceutical production units) in selected public medical institutions across the country

•Funding the formulation and the implementation of educational programs regarding hospital infections and the treatment of trauma