‘The Greek parents too poor to care for their children’ proclaims the BBC headline, above its report last week that Greece’s financial crisis is making Greek families so desperate they are abandoning their own kids.
But all is not what meets the eye in this shocking story, as the BBC stands accused of twisting the comments of an interviewee to support the headline’s dramatic claim.
The article in question was published on the BBC News website and paints a desperate picture of the traditional cornerstone of Greek society – the family – beginning to crumble.
Central to its narrative are comments attributed to a young priest, Father Antonios, who leads the pioneering work of the Kivotos centre, an NGO known as the Ark, which provides help to hundreds of disadvantaged children and their families in central Athens.
Father Antonios’ alleged comments, of finding children “on his doorstep” in recent months, of experiencing “hundreds of cases of parents who want to leave their children “, and the specific case of a two-year-old girl, are used in the article to show that the economic crisis is driving Greek families to abandon their children. But Neos Kosmos has been told by the charity that Father Antonios’ comments have been taken out of context.
“It’s a total fabrication,” said Marina Katsabalis, who has worked with Father Antonios as a volunteer for 12 years. “Father was asked if, due to the crisis, people were abandoning their children, and he said: ‘As a matter of fact, we did have a lady bring here a two-year-old, an Armenian child.’ “The children that are abandoned, none of them are Greek.
But Father Antonios did not want to make this differentiation, because he felt it would sound racist.” Ms Katsabalis added that the only cases of abandoned children at the Kivotos centre , which receives no funding from the Greek government, were from non-Greek refugees.
“The child that was abandoned at the centre mentioned in the article, was this two-year-old Armenian little girl,” said Ms Katsabalis.
“Describing the Ark as a multifaceted organization Ms Katsabalis said: “Our children are not orphans, mostly they are from one-parent families. We help provide food, clothes, medical help, whatever a child might need.”
“The one thing these people forget when they read articles like this abroad, is that we have one thing in Greece that is our saving grace, and that is the family. We’re not dying of starvation in Greece, we’re not abandoning our children,” said Ms Katsabalis. “We’re not any worse than they are in Ireland in Spain, or England, or anywhere in Europe that’s going through this crisis.”
Ms Katsabalis described Father Antonios, who does not speak English, as being “flabbergasted” on hearing the content of the article. Ms Katsabalis told Neos Kosmos from Athens that since the article’s publication she had received enquiries from overseas as to its accuracy.
“I’ve just had someone call me from San Francisco, a Greek American, and they say they will complain to the BBC about this article.
“It’s not true. Father gave an interview and he only talked about his work, and how in our own way we try to help the situation in Greece, but he never said those things. We are really upset. Father would never take part in something so libellous to Greece.”