File 01: Stories - The Manifold Files

Hell as an Institution

The Lechaina Unit for disabled children has been called many names over the years: “hellhole”, “a stain”, “Europe’s hidden shame”. Pictures of children reaching adulthood in cages, their deaths marked by an olive tree planted in memoriam, have spread across the world,[...]

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The Haunting of Leros

An infamous case of abused children in a remote Greek island shows just how the authorities and local societies are failing to provide a safety net.

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Antonis Rellas

“They enter as children and depart as olives”

The Zero Tolerance activist and film director speaks about what he witnessed in the Lechaina Institution, where disabled children have been reaching adulthood in cages, their deaths marked by an olive tree planted in memoriam, and calls for an end to institutionalisation.

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When a Child is Abused, Who Do You Call?

In Greece, just when the State should spread a protective net to break the fall of those most vulnerable, the exact opposite happens: after being abandoned, neglected, or abused by those closest to them, children continue to be violated; this time by[...]

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Plans for National Inaction

Every government since 2009 has laid out its own “National Action Plan” on child protection. What they all share is that almost none of their grand designs were ever implemented.

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The Basketball Sect

The biggest child sexual abuse case in Greece, involving dozens of children abused by their coach over a period of years, highlights the deficiencies of individual authorities, as well as the Greek state’s failure to organise an effective response, even when expert[...]

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Punishing the Victims

For many decades, children in need were seen by Greek authorities mainly as props in the political game, and regarded by the law chiefly as delinquents — actual or potential. Many lingering shortcomings of the child protection system are direct descendants of[...]

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Giorgos Nikolaidis

“We do not need networks, we need institutions”

The eminent psychiatrist and Director of the Mental Health and Social Welfare Department of the Institute of Child Health insists that what is most urgent in the Greek child protection system is for it to be reorganised into an autonomous sector.

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Xeni Dimitriou

“If something is not institutionally enshrined, it is pointless”

The former Supreme Court Prosecutor, who also served for years as a Public Prosecutor for Minors, speaks about her extensive experience in office, the shift from delinquency to victimisation, and her contributions to the child protection system.

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The Prosecutor’s Children

Vulnerable and abandoned children languish in unsuitable hospitals for years in Greece, even when they are not ill. A new foster care system might offer a solution, but it remains incomplete.

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Xenia Apostola

“One child lived at the hospital for thirteen years”

The Head of the Aghia Sofia Children’s Hospital Social Services talks about the children stranded in paediatric hospitals, the training of health experts to deal with abuse, and the heavy toll of austerity on welfare.

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