Feature Story

Nikoli Maria

CN2202 A1

Feature Story

6/4/2014

Reaching Kalivia Attikis the dome of the central church of the village pops grandly and a few meters further there are a dozen of tables spread in the pavement, which belongs to one of the few neoclassical buildings in the village, 1920 café. Getting inside the café and reaching the bar you may notice a good looking woman around 45, with chocolate shoulder length hair, dressed from top to toe in expensive fashion brands. If you visit the place regularly you may create a list with all her dreamy and expensive handbags. What creates interest though is not the dress code of the owner Sofia Apostolou but the fact that the café is almost empty at 11 o’ clock in the morning. Asking her “How do you manage all these expensive shopping while owning a small business hit by the economic crisis?” straightway she says “ All of these luxuries are the remains of a golden period before the economic crisis. Four years ago this place was filled with customers about 4 times per shift. Now not even once. And imagine that I have to pay 10.000 euros per year for my daughter’s school”.

Almost all small Greek businesses suffer today. One in two small business employing up to 49 people is in danger of closing in the upcoming months due to reduced profits and debts as reported by VIMA newspaper. Is it possible to offer your child the benefits of private education while your business is at the brink? And why public school is not an option? Ms Apostolou says, “ I am surely hit by the crisis but my child is above everything and I want her to have the best education she can. I think that the only way she can get the education she deserves is by having her in the school she attends right now Ellinogermaniki Agogi. I want her to be in a school that does not lack of organization, that is never on strike, that has meticulously selected professors and that provides my child a safety that public schools do not.” Someone might think that this is...