Poverty

Greece has not been doing enough to fight child poverty, Deputy Ombudsman Giorgos Moschos told a parliamentary committee on Friday.

He told MPs on the equality and human rights committee that a panel of experts at the National Center for Social Research had come to this conclusion after studying a range of figures.

The City of Athens handed out around 1,000 free meals to the capital’s homeless and other residents.

Queues formed outside a sports arena in Rouf, near central Athens, on Easter Sunday as the City of Athens handed out around 1,000 free meals to the capital’s homeless and other residents in need.

Pupils at public schools in Attica and the northern port city of Thessaloniki are to receive free fruit and fruit salad from Tuesday as part of a program developed by the Agriculture Ministry.

The quality of life of children in Greece has worsened due to cuts in social benefits, a growing number of unemployed parents, increasing poverty levels and inadequate access to medical care, according to a report by the children’s charity UNICEF, whose findings were made public on Thursday.

Greece saw the biggest rise in the European Union between 2011 and 2012 in terms of the proportion of its population that is at risk of poverty, according to the European Commission's latest Employment and Social Situation Quarterly Review, which was published on Monday.

BELGRADE - The Serbian government's team for social inclusion and poverty reduction, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy and the Office for Cooperation with the Civil Society called on all interested organizations to submit comments on the draft of the first part of the Employment and Social Reform Program (ESRP) until March 26.

The Ministry of Social affairs said a new law will significantly up the fight against child labour by making it easier to place child beggars in care.

If a child is caught begging on the strets, social workers will first put the parents under monitoring, the new law says.

Experts urge action to help child beggars

Child beggars on the streets are a global phenomenon, but experts and NGOs in Southeast Europe are urging governments to take action.

Child beggars are a global phenomenon. [AFP]