The President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos presented Models of Excellence awards to Desmos Non-Profit Foundation and Emfasis Foundation which are partner organisations to The Hellenic Initiative Australia.
The two organisations were among the eight who were honoured under The Citizen’s Movement for an Open Society at the Old Parliament House in Athens on 26 November.
The awards were presented to Lena Papalexopoulou, the vice-president of Desmos and to Emfasis co-founder Maria Karra.
Emfasis was honoured for its social street work program which last year provided outreach services to more than 1,300 homeless and rough sleepers in Athens and Piraeus through its mobile support units.
Desmos, through its I Care & Act programme (implemented with the Lambrakis Foundation), received recognition for instilling values of volunteerism, charity, solidarity and active citizenship in schools across Greece. Over the past four years more than 63,000 students from 550 public schools have participated in the programme.
“We are very proud that two of our partner NGOs have been recognised for the amazing work that they do in assisting people in need and empowering civil society in Greece,” said The Hellenic Initiative CEO Stergitsa Zamagias-Hill.
The Hellenic Initiative Australia is funding the Emfasis Mobile Support Unit for a second year, while this is the third year it is supporting the I Care & Act Program.