NEWS

Fotini Dervissi, 11

Fotini was inspired by the sight of a homeless man when she read the Declaration of Human Rights, her mother Eleni Dimitriadou-Dervissi told Kathimerini. «There is a man living in a shop doorway in a busy street in Thessaloniki,» writes Fotini. «People pass by there every day but no one thinks about how difficult and dangerous it is to live there. He hasn’t got enough food and water. Where he lives is cold… We must do something!» She suggests: «One idea is to tell people about this man. Someone might be interested in helping him, to encourage him, to give him a house. But maybe he is too proud to accept charity. My aunt says that in Greece there are 17,000 homeless people. We must provide them with jobs to earn their own money. We must give part-time jobs to the old people. We must provide healthcare homes where they will have food and water, medical care and warm clothes. We must give them the chance to meet other people, make friends, communicate with somebody. Also we must inform the social services about these people. And we can ask the members of Parliament to help them.» Fotini received her award recently at a ceremony at the University of Macedonia, along with Haris Brissimi, the first woman director of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Geneva, who also won an award.

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