Greece - Chairing the Athens Trans National Meetings on Inclusion (April 2019)
During the first week of April, 2019, the Grand Chancellor was in Athens in order to chair the Athens Trans National Meetings and Workshops for streamlining numeracy, literacy and communication modules for persons with intellectual difficulties throughout Europe.
Representatives of Malta, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Greece and the UK were part of these meetings which were held at the Theotokos Foundation. The Theotokos Foundation is a non-profit welfare organization (private law entity) and has been operating continuously since 1963. It is managed by an Honorary Board of Directors and is supervised by the Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Welfare. The Foundation is located in the Municipality of Ilion and is situated on 51 acres of land with about 7,000 m2 of buildings.
Special education and therapy services are provided to pre-school children aged 2,5 - 5 years (early intervention) and to teenagers aged 14 - 20 years with developmental delays, developmental intellectual disorders and autism spectrum disorders. Vocational training and rehabilitation are provided to young adults aged 20 - 35 years. Family environments are supported and intervention is implemented when necessary.
More than 5,000 individuals have been supported and have received services during the 52 years of the foundation’s operation. Currently, 370 children and young adults attend daily, of which, about 60 are from poverty-stricken families without social security. They are all supported by innovative programs, exemplary for Greece and Europe. The foundation employs 93 staff members (scientific, administrative and support personnel) and is led by the recipient of the Order’s highest civilian accolade, name the Grand Cross of Merit of the Companionate of Merit of the Order, Confrere Ioannis Vardakastanis. He has also been the President of the European Disability Forum (EDF), the umbrella organisation of the European disability movement, since 1999.