<\/p>\n
by the Social Service of the <\/em>Athens Solidarity Center<\/em><\/a>*<\/em><\/p>\n When we met Mr. S. at the Social Service of the Athens Solidarity Center, he informed us about how “I was forced to leave my country, not for a better life, but for staying alive”.<\/strong><\/em> In his country of origin, he was persecuted and deprived of his rights due to his political beliefs.<\/p>\n After arriving to Greece, 18 months ago, and filing for an asylum application, Mr. S., 39, was diagnosed with cancer. A new enemy now threatens his life.<\/strong> He undergoes the necessary chemotherapy and treatment in a public hospital, but his health condition is worsened by the difficulties of daily living, most notably the lack of housing.<\/p>\n For these issues he sought help to the Athens Solidarity Center and our social service. <\/strong>Every time Mr. S. completes a short treatment in hospital, he anxiously strives for a place to stay, someone to accept to host him, a process inappropriate and risky for his health.<\/p>\n We applied for housing<\/strong> following the procedures provided by the accommodation program for asylum seekers; and of course, we met the inadequacies and torturous delays of the bureaucratic system. Yet, with persistent effort and constant care, we managed to secure a housing position in a shorter period than usual.<\/strong><\/p>\n The next time he leaves the hospital, Mr. S knows that his has a home now. A safe place where he can rest, eat better, and take care of himself.<\/strong> And we know that we were contributors to his efforts for a life of dignity and hope.<\/p>\n * Since May 2019, the Athens Solidarity Center is financed by EEA and Norway Grants<\/a>, with HumanRights360<\/a> and CROWE Greece<\/a> as the fund operator. The Center is also supported by the Municipality of Athens<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by the Social Service of the Athens Solidarity Center* When we met Mr. S. at the Social Service of the Athens Solidarity Center, he informed us about how “I was forced to leave my country, not for a better life, but for staying alive”. In his country of origin, he was persecuted and deprived of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10240,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238\/revisions\/10240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solidaritynow.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}