SOS för Solidaritetsläkarmottagning i Elliniko
Solidaritetsläkarmottagnignen i Elliniko, Aten hotas att rivas ner.
Vårt stöd behövs nu mer än någonsin.
Mottagningens volontärer har skickat ut det följande brevet som beskriver den aktuella kritiska situationen (för mer information om Solidaritetsmottagningen läs här: http://natverketforgrekland.se/solidaritetsarbete-pagar/).
Second attempt to evict the Metropolitan Community Clinic Helliniko in Athens, Greece
Deadline 15 March 2020
We received a notification letter from Hellinko S.A. on 11/02/2020, also addressed to the Ministry of Health notifying also the Ministries of Development & Investments, Industry & Commerce and the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund S.A.
The letter clearly states that the Metropolitan Community Clinic Helliniko must immediately vacate the building in which it is housed since December 2011 and which was granted by the Municipality of Helliniko-Argyroupolis.
This letter does not state that Helliniko S.A. had already tried to evict our clinic, again, in May 2018 sending us directly an eviction letter. At that time making their letter and intentions public had as a result the rousing of our patients, citizens and organizations in Greece and abroad. You can read the press release that was published at that time by our clinic at the following link: “Sudden Death for Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko We say NO and “we will not go quietly into the night….” [1]
There were protests outside the Greek embassies in Belgium and Germany. Members of the European Parliament, academics, scientist, free clinics in Greece, personalities such as Mikis Theodorakis showed their support and forced Helliniko S.A. and the Greek Government to state that a solution was possible so that our free clinic could continue its operation in its current location until they would find us a suitable location with easy access to our patients. The press release of the Metropolitan Community Clinic Helliniko entitled “Solidarity is the strongest weapon – Our mission continues” [2] summarises the actions of the victorious solidarity movement that protected our clinic.
Photo of a demonstration of CGSP ALR, against the eviction attempt on May 2018, outside the Greek embassy in Brussels
Mayor of Helliniko-Argyroupolis Mr. Giannis Konstantatos, a member of Helliniko S.A. till today, who was appointed at this position in 2015 by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund S.A. [3] had promised that “the Municipality of Helliniko-Argyroupolis has the capability to house the Metropolitan Community Clinic Helliniko”. [4]
There is also the explicit commitment of Mayor Konstantatos and the investor LAMDA Development S.A. that the clinic not only won’t be moved but it will be “upgraded”. Mr. Odysseas Athanasiou, CEO of LAMDA Development S.A. at the presentation of the project in the hotel Grand Bretagne in June 2014 stated that “… the Metropolitan Community Clinic Helliniko will stay and operate as it is currently doing in even better facilities that will be granted to it in the same area. We wish to help in anything that will be needed. We are on their side and I invite them to a meeting even next week” [5]
Now Helliniko S.A. and the current Government with the support (?) of the Municipality of Helliniko-Argyroupolis is trying to invalidate these statements and actually send away dozens of volunteers, throw away thousands of boxes of medicines, formula and milk, destroy a fully operational dental office with its equipment, cardiology office with ultra sound equipment and all supplies and equipment in its premises donated by people. In the same letter of Helliniko S.A. addressed also to the Ministry of Health there is no mention of what will happen to our patients that visit our clinic every month.
They want to evict us without giving an alternative solution, they want to demolish a 200 square meter building and the clinic it houses and which supports outcasts of the Greek society which were created by the Economic Adjustment Programs that were supported by the Greek Governments from 2010 until today. They want to eliminate a community of volunteers, a community of solidarity, with thousands of supporters to our work from Greece and abroad that even provides with medicines and supplies Public Hospitals, Public Institutions, nursing homes, settlements of refugees and immigrants and every other citizen that is desperately looking for medicines that are missing from the Greek market.
We ask this Govenment, Helliniko S.A., the Mayor of Helliniko-Argyroupolis and LAMDA Development S.A. to tell us where is the Metropolitan Community Clinic Helliniko going to go which doesn’t have financial support, which has never asked for monetary support from no one and which has supported 7.500 patients in more than 72.000 visits up to now since December 2011.
We answer that we will continue to be in our current location offering medicines, hope and dignity. All these years the Metropolitan Community Clinic Helliniko was a constant supporter of all people that needed our help without discrimination and we will continue to do so.
The lyrics of poet Kostas Varnalis express us volunteers
“I am not the seed of chance
the fabricator of life
I am a child of need
and a mature child of rage”
We call on all citizens to express their disgust at those who attempt to evict us and close us down:
– PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE: Mr. Kostantinos Mitsotakis
Telephone : 00302106711-000
Email: primeminister@primeminister.gr
– MINISTRY OF DEVELOPMENT – Mr. Adonis Georgiadis
Telephone: 0030210-3332-637 or 0030210-3332-548
Email: minister.sec@mnec.gr
Email: d.secretary@mnec.gr
– MINISTRY OF HEALTH – Mr. Vassilis Kikilias
Telephone: 0030213-2161-233 or 0030213-2161-242
Email: minister@moh.gov.gr
Email: secretary.gen.dy@moh.gov.gr
– HELLENIC SA – Mrs. Sultana Spyropoulou and Ms. Marilena Lakiotis
Telephone: 0030210-9820-214
Εmail: info@hellinikon.com
Email: lakioti@hellinikon.com
– MUNICIPALITY OF HELLINIKO-ARGYROUPOLIS – Mr. Yiannis Constantatos
Telephone: 0030213-2018-734 / 0030213-2018-700
Email: secretary@elliniko-argyroupoli.gr
Email: protokollo@elliniko-argyroupoli.gr
The time has come for the society itself that gave birth and supported over the years the Metropolitan Social Medical Center of Hellenic, to give its immediate response to those who impoverish citizens and at the same time close down solidarity structures like ours, without considering what will happen with all the citizens we support.
References:
[1] https://www.mkiellinikou.org/en/2018/06/01/sudden-death-for-metropolitan-community-clinic-at-helliniko/
[2] https://www.mkiellinikou.org/en/2018/06/21/solidarity-is-the-strongest-weapon/
[3] https://www.kathimerini.gr/838084/article/oikonomia/epixeirhseis/nea-dioikhsh-sthn-ellhniko-ae
[5] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DerXhGR0YYROGQsyS-dcnsfRWB7EzN3t/view?usp=sharing
METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CLINIC AT HELLINIKO
Working Hours
(MONDAY – THURSDAY 10:00 – 20:00) and (FRIDAY – SATURDAY 10:00 – 14:00)
CONTACT PHONE NUMBER: +30 210 9631950
ADDRESS: Inside the old American Military Base,
(200m away from the Traffic Police of the Municipality
of Helleniko, next to the Cultural Center of Helleniko)
Post code TK16777, Elliniko, Attiki, Greece
Website: http://www.mkiellinikou.org/en/
Email: mkiellinikou@gmail.com