More Greeks turn to Doctors of the World
More Greeks are turning to the Doctors of the World for medical care and food as the mounting debt crisis takes its toll, the organization said Wednesday.
?The last few months have seen an increase in the number of our Greek patients to about 30 percent,? the group?s president, Nikitas Kanakis, said in a press conference Wednesday.
It is a dramatic surge from last year?s 6 percent said the group, which was originally established to help illegal immigrants.
Repeated rounds of tax hikes and wage cuts, demanded by Greece?s foreign lenders, have left tens of thousands without access to healthcare traditionally provided through employment and social security schemes. Most worrying, Kanakis told journalists Wednesday, is ?an increasing number of people asking us for food.?
More than two decades since launching the local branch of the NGO, 600 Greek Doctors of the World this year return to Greece to work in the crisis-hit country.
?Last year we sent five or six food containers to Uganda. This year we will need them for Greece,? he said.
