SOS Children’s Villages Greece has stepped in to support the two young children of Vasiliki, the 39-year-old woman killed by her husband in Kalamata, in the latest femicide case that has shaken Greece.
The organization will be covering the full rent of a home in Kalamata, where the children and their aunt will live temporarily while plans are finalized to move the family to the aunt’s permanent home elsewhere in the country. The sister of Vasiliki was granted temporary custody of the children, aged 6 and 10, by a prosecutor after the suspect was placed in pre-trial detention.
A specialist team from SOS Children’s Villages is also providing psychological care and counseling to the children and their aunt, working alongside the local community center in Messinia. The organization says this support will not end when the family moves, but will carry over to their new home in order to ensure that the children get the care they need and are connected to support services in their new community.
According to local reports the aunt had been struggling financially and was working and commuting outside Kalamata to get by, which had raised early concerns about whether she could take the children in. A monthly foster care allowance of 1,050 euros for the two children, announced by Social Cohesion Minister Domna Michailidou, is meant to ease that burden and let her focus on raising them.
“When a child faces such a violent and traumatic loss, society has a duty to act quickly and in a coordinated way,” said Evangelos Tsilis, national director of SOS Children’s Villages Greece. “Our job is to make sure these children have the people, the services and the conditions they need to feel safe and steady again, and to go on with their lives with dignity and hope.”
Support has poured in from the people of Kalamata since the murder of Vasiliki became public, with the municipality, the Church and local residents all pitching in.
Officials and the organizations involved say no details that could identify the two children, directly or indirectly, will be released, in keeping with child protection and privacy rules.
