In the midst of turbulent events and revelations, a tangle of cases is unfolding regarding allegedly supposedly “Ark of Peace“, while an extraordinary meeting in Maximos under the prime minister, followed by announcements from a government representative.

The meeting was held with the participation of Deputy Minister of Labor Domnas Mihailidou and Secretary General of the Social Solidarity Giorgos Stamatis. The focus was on the structure and steps to be taken to ensure the protection of children while the judicial investigation of allegations in the institution is ongoing, as the juvenile prosecutor’s office investigates allegations of physical and sexual abuse in the institution.

Recall that at the government level there was also a statement the day before yesterday. withdrawal of assistance provided to NGOs by the Ministry of Finance.

In the “microscope” of research ethree cases of negligence and four complaints of battery were filed.

New testimonies to the light

At that time, in continuation of the previous indications in “K”19-year-old, whose testimony is in the case, spoke exclusively with “Kathimerini tis Kyriaki”describing the scene he witnessed.

As of 2018, the then 15-year-old was residing in the Chios structure, where he abruptly moved when, after the Ark’s excursion to the island, officials informed him that the rest of the children would return to Athens, but he would remain on Chios. He wanted to continue his studies – he had already graduated from high school – but “Kivoto” told him that this was not necessary. They enrolled him in a private school, for which at first they said they would pay in full, but then they made him pay for it himself with all the money that, according to him, was to be his salary for his day job, money that was kept for years by the responsible themselves. faces.

In August 2021, the 19-year-old was awake in the kitchen today, where his usual post was, in case he was called. It was midnight, and indeed, he was asked to deliver food – vegetable soup veloute – to one of the rooms where the director of Kivotos was staying. He listened to music with headphones. When he left the room with the disc, abstract as it was, he didn’t knock. Just open the door. He quickly closed it. As he tells “K”, he saw a 17-year-old friend lying half-naked on a bed in a room who had previously confessed to him that he was going through similar incidents, but before that, the 19-year-old did not believe him. One of the leaders of Kivotos stood over him and at that moment had sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old boy. “You saw,” the 17-year-old told him the next day, “that I’m not crazy.”

The 19-year-old is only one of the children who grew up in “Kivoto” and spoke exclusively to “K” about what they experienced in its structures. He may not have been the victim of sexual assault himself, but in 2017 a Kivotos employee threw a basketball at his head, hit him and split his knee. A girl who spent six years in a building on Chios told K that they were beaten by superiors when they did not obey. A 27-year-old man who has lived in the Kolonos building since the age of 14 claims to K that a worker punched him in the face for speaking out. When he informed the management of the organization about this, the teacher was transferred to another structure on the territory for a month, and then returned. When another Kivotos employee, whom the 27-year-old man calls a high-ranking man, mistreated him, he confessed to a friend. They decided not to talk to anyone because when someone else accused the same employee of sexual harassment, Kivotos management drove him crazy, the 27-year-old says. Another girl claims that the same worker hit her.

Punishments

The children who grew up in the Ark were already suffering. Many have already been abused. They did not have an easy life at home, and most of them admit to “K” about themselves that when they got to the boarding school, they were difficult and irritable children. They hoped that if they did not find salvation in the Ark, they might find a family. Many are still grateful. For the letters they learned, for having shelter, food, everyday life that at first seemed normal and then quickly became oppressive, offensive and steeped in hypocrisy. Two of the children talking to K report that Kivotos employees told the children that two days before they arrived, journalists would come into the buildings and dictate to them what to say. If they deviated from instructions, they were punished, according to K.

The punishments were frequent, sometimes lasting for months, and cruel – confinement in the organization’s rooms, houses, or warehouses, “we weren’t fed or even seen sunlight,” says a girl from the Chios structure, “and arbitrary. For example, a 27-year-old man claims that any child who was a Christian and did not go to church on Sundays was punished. Especially if a child who didn’t live in the building but attended classes or the Ark helped his family didn’t go to church on Sundays, the Ark stopped giving food to his family as punishment, he argues.

Like the 19-year-old, the other three speak of suspicious financial management. “They sometimes stole money from us, but they didn’t admit it,” says the girl from the Chios structure. A 20-year-old woman who lived from the age of 12 to 18 in the Kivotos building in Epirus says that for their obligatory work – cleaning the toilets, kitchens and warehouses of the Kivotos, among other things – and as a reward for good behavior, officials used to give them 10 euros a month, which they said they were entitled to but kept for themselves. The only way to redeem them, as he describes it, was to buy something from the “mini market they set up inside the structure to get their money back” or spend it within a month. If a month passed and they went to responsible people to ask for their money, they were told that they had already spent it and did not remember.

The 27-year-old says the foundation’s benefactor gave 10,000 euros to every Kivotos child who went on to school. He received 8,000 euros – “K” saw his savings book certificate – and then the employee, whom he describes as a high-ranking person, told him that he should return most of the money to “Kivoto” and leave 2,000 euros to the 27-year-old old to help and the rest of the children, something he heard that the other children of the institution also asked for. “We will go to the bank together to withdraw them,” he told him.

“I no longer believe in saints. Only for those who can’t be seen

Forced labor was common, say the children who lived in different structures of Kivotos – in Kolonos, Chios and Epirus – and their information is available to the newspaper. A girl from the Chios structure reports that when she was 7 years old, she and other children had to work in the field. The 19-year-old describes how they woke up at 6 am. At 6.15 we had breakfast, at 6.30 we started agricultural work on the mountain. “They gave us shovels and rakes,” he tells K, “and we broke the stones.” They stopped for lunch, and then continued the same work until the summer, not quite understanding why. Father Anthony told them that if you break the stones and clean the earth, it will soften, bear fruit, just like people. In the meantime, however, all they produced were blisters.

Children noted that they were not only afraid to react, but also did not know who to turn to. The institution did not allow them, they say, to have mobile phones. When their relatives called, in most cases, the responsible persons lied to them that the children were gone or did not want to talk to them, as the father of the child, who was in the structure of the institution, told K.

objections

However, not everyone agrees with the complaints that emerged both as a result of the investigation by the Government and in the form of testimony to “K”. The 20-year-old, who according to a social media account was friendly with a worker who was accused of neglect and physical abuse by other children in K, told the newspaper that he did not agree with what was being listened to. He himself did not live in the building, however, like other children, he visited Kivoto every day from the 4th grade until last year. “I experienced a completely different thing there, I arranged my life, I study and every day I thank for what I got,” he emphasizes to “K”. “I have not experienced anything like this and have not seen it happen,” he says, referring to cases of physical violence, harassment, blackmail or punishment.

New context

At the very least, these statements point to the urgent need for institutional control. A legal and regulatory framework has recently been created that sets out specifications and clear criteria for the establishment and operation of child protection and care units. The purpose of the new rules, to which some non-state actors reacted sharply, is, according to the responsible Deputy Minister of Social Protection Domna Mihailidou, not only their optimal functioning, but also the evolution of their role “into a child”. -centered model of finding a suitable family for them.

Finishing a life interview with one of the former beneficiaries of the “Ark”, our words are drowned in the deafening ringing of the bell from the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. I ask him if he himself believes more in saints. “No,” he replies. “Only clean,” he adds, “and those who work and are not visible.”