THE SMILE OF THE CHILD Announcement concerning COVID-19

PRESS RELEASE

Athens, 12 March 2020

THE SMILE OF THE CHILD

Announcement concerning COVID-19

“The Smile of the Child” is fully aware of its crucial role in protecting children and their families. We are here to fully support the state health agencies in their work to safeguard public health. In this spirit, “The Smile of the Child” is undertaking the following initiatives.

Specifically:

• We are making available qualified specialists (social workers and psychologists) to effectively address questions posed by children an educational/social support in dealing with the issues that come up. The National Helpline Children SOS 1056 is available 24 hours a day, free of charge for both mobile and landline callers.
• Our expert staff (doctors, psychologists, social workers) will be posting informative articles on www.hamogelo.gr and throughout the social media accounts of the Organization.
• We welcome questions and concerns from parents/guardians, teachers and children through our social media accounts.  Our staff will respond with answers to questions as they come up.
• We will further conduct special webinars in order to help adults and children address coronavirus issues as they come up. The webinars will allow doctors, psychologists and social workers to answer questions posed directly from the viewers.
• In certain circumstances, we will also be providing individual skype counseling by psychologists on the 1056 helpline.
• Simultaneously, we are in constant contact with the Ministry of Health in order to utilize the Mobile Preventive Medical Units, including the Multi-Medical Center, as well as the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units (Ambulances) of the Organization.

We are further making available to children, adults, parents/guardians & teachers the following:

• Chat Application of the SOS 1056 helpline; Children will be able to communicate with the Psychologists and Social Workers of the helpline. The Chat App of the 1056 helpline is made possible with the generous support of the NBG ΙΤ Dept.
• The YouLearn Online Learning Platform in order to facilitate distant learning through teacher volunteers. The initiative is generously supported by CISCO.