Greek poor people get electricity again

This video says about itself:

Many Greeks still going hungry and can’t pay for electricity

20 February 2015

For two years, Giorgos and Evgenia Kouzilos and their three children have been living without electricity. Athens says 300,000 households in Greece can’t afford the bill.

In an interview by oil lamp, Mr. Kouzilos said: “It’s really tough for my wife and children. We try to finish activities such as helping the kids with their homework while there’s still daylight.”

Michalis Tsaoussoglou’s family is among the one in five who went hungry last year. He says he drove trucks for 35 years and paid his taxes but has been unemployed for five years now, and so he goes to a food bank in the outskirts of Athens. He owes six months rent and a year of electricity, but he hasn’t brought in a single euro in that time.

Mr. Tsaoussoglou said: “As it is, I feel useless, as if I’m dirty, like I don’t exist.”

The Prolepsis Institute of Preventive Medicine and Occupational Health says 54 percent of Greeks are not adequately fed.

Read more here.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Syriza‘s first law gives poorest Greeks free food vouchers and electricity

Thursday 5th March 2015

NEW ruling party Syriza used its first legislative act in parliament on Tuesday night to confront the country’s “humanitarian crisis” by offering free food vouchers and electricity to impoverished citizens.

“The deep recession due to austerity policies and the economic crisis in the past six years had a dramatic social impact,” read the government Bill.

“This draft law aims to tackle the humanitarian crisis through measures which ensure access to basic goods.”

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that it was his government’s “foremost duty” to eradicate the damage that austerity has caused, while remaining committed to balancing the budget.

Under the Bill, 300,000 people will receive food vouchers, while families with young children will have priority for restored electricity.