| Administrative History | Allocations: 1923-1941, 1945-1987. See later annual reports for subsequent allocations.
SCF first became involved in Greece as a result of the refugee crisis following the war with Turkey in 1921-1922. Large areas of territory awarded to Greece after the First World War were recovered by Turkey in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, leading to a massive transfer of refugees between the two countries. SCF set up feeding centres in Volos (Volo), Salonica (Thessaloniki), Athens and the Piraeus which operated until 1925-1926. In 1929 SCF established a trachoma clinic in Athens, which was supported until 1932. During this period SCF also sent emergency aid to Greece following earthquakes in Corinth in April 1928 and in the Chalcidice peninsula in 1932. Individual aid, in the form of adoptions, continued for several years.
In the 1930s SCF gave aid to Armenian, Greek and Russian refugees in camps in Greece. SCF's work in Greece was suspended in 1941, and aid to Greece was curtailed in April 1942, following the German occupation which lasted from 1941-1945. SCF's plans to send aid to occupied Greece fell through due to government restrictions on money leaving the country. SCF returned to Greece in March 1945, when a relief team was landed in Athens. Soon there were several teams running clothing and feeding centres in the areas of Patras (later moving to Epirus), Kavalla, and Lavandia, and planning for long term programmes. SCF continued to distribute food and clothing, working with the Greek children's organisation, PIKPA. Feeding centres continued to operate into the 1970s.
In the 1950s SCF became involved in training nursery workers and opening nurseries and nursery schools in Greece. In 1954, an SCF-built training college for nursery school teachers was opened on the island in the Lake of Ioannina. In 1961, the Ioannina Training College, together with its Nursery and Baby Home, the nursery in nearby Stroumi village, the Nursery Centre on Ithaca, and the Elleniko Nursery School were handed over to PIKPA.
During the 1950s and 1960s SCF developed mobile medical clinics to visit the poorer and more inaccessible areas of the west and south Peloppenese. As well as the continuation of feeding and clothing distribution, village nurseries and nursery training centres were built. SCF helped a number of villages in the north establish a water supply by providing piping, pumps, and storage tanks. In the 1960s vocational training was being provided at Alika Vocational School, and Children's House in Elleniko was providing training in skills such areas as carpentry, dress-making cookery and gardening. During the 1950s and 1960s SCF also provided emergency relief in response to floods, earthquakes, and typhoons in Greece, including an earthquake on the Ionian Islands in 1953, and a typhoon in Athens area in 1961.
In 1973 all SCF projects still operative were handed over to local administration. Sponsorship, which began in 1955, continued until 1987. |