Jotis to sponsor village mothers and infants
Leading Greek food company Jotis and nonprofit organization HOPEgenesis on Thursday announced a program aimed at boosting the birth rate in remote parts of Greece.
Through the program, called “A Hope Is Born,” Jotis will “adopt” 86 villages in the regional units of Evrytania, Fokida and Evia in Central Greece and Arta in Epirus, in the sense that it will cover all expenses of local pregnant women, their tests and births as well as hospital costs (including transport).
Jotis will also cover the food needs of the children born in those 86 villages for their first two years. In total the program will last for four years, and the cost per mother is estimated at between 4,000 and 5,000 euros.
The only criterion for inclusion in the program is that the mothers should be permanent residents of those villages.
“Our motives are our faith in Greece and our commitment to supporting our motherland,” said Jotis commercial director Marios Papathanasiou.
Referring to Greece’s demographic crisis, HOPEgenesis founder Dr Stefanos Handakas noted that with the current low birth rate, 30 percent of the population in Greece will be over 55 years of age in 2035, with gross domestic product set to suffer a 5.54 percent reduction due to the projected shrinking of the population.
