Work on the roofing of the children’s toilets has begun.

Yesterday I was called to elementary school. Our project for the children’s toilets is moving forward! The principal of the elementary school in Christos-Raches Polixeni Papamihail excitedly asked me to take photos for our donors. After all, a good year has passed since the door was broken through.

Photo: Boys’ toilet with covered passage to the girls’ toilet and the new school entrance to the right

In November 2014, the money collected from our fundraising campaign “Direct access to the children’s toilets” was used to build a door in the 80cm thick rear wall of the school. First an opening had to be made in the old dry stone wall so that a brand new door could be installed. The primary school children were finally able to reach the separate toilet block directly. Since the building is an old traditional stone house, this is not an easy task, as these walls easily collapse if you break through the key stones. Toilets and sanitary facilities in general were not provided in these houses at that time. The small children had to run through the rain and snow all around the school building to get to the toilet block that was added later.

Read the report from November 2014, there are also photos.

Photo: Covered passageway from the girls’ to the boys’ toilets and to the new school door

Our plan from the start was to cover the distance between the new door and the toilet block so that the children could reach the toilets with dry feet. But that means a kind of “addition” to the school building. Polixeni Papamihail had been fighting his way through the Greek bureaucracy for a year. She called again and again, asked questions, sent emails and with patience and perseverance put the project out for competition, invited carpenters, read reports and regulations, filled out forms, submitted construction plans, and so on. After all, it was about building permission for changes to a public building, mind you, at a school, where special safety regulations apply! And the mills grind slowly!

Photo: Entrance to the girls’ toilets

But suddenly all the effort is forgotten and it’s with great pleasure that I show you the first photos! The scaffolding is in place, roofing felt and roof tiles are being put on top so that everything is waterproof. At the same time, all broken roof tiles on the toilet block will be replaced. Estimated cost €2200. The Ikaria friends will transfer the missing amount of €600 as quickly as possible.

Since it has rained heavily and even snowed (!!!) in the last few days, the wooden framework has become wet and, according to Ms. Papamihail, the work will first have to wait until everything has dried a little, because the wet roof tiles of the toilet house can be damaged not safe to enter. But that’s what we can do well: practice patience ;-)

Photo: Zizokampos in the snow by Giannis Kafasias

Luckily, we managed to fill the heating oil tanks in all the schools and kindergartens just before the cold weather hit. The state does provide money for heating oil, but not enough. These large, poorly insulated stone houses can only be heated for a few hours. Thanks to your donations, we make it possible to have heating during all school hours, so the children no longer have to sit in class covered in winter jackets, shivering.

At this point I would like to emphasize once again that we support the schools in Raches because they are the only schools in the mountains where it can get really cold and sometimes snow. All other schools in Ikaria are near the coast and therefore in a milder climate. Thanks to the numerous donations, we can also heat the kindergartens this year and thus support more children!

However, they will need supplies at the end of the month…

Here is an overview of our previous heating oil fundraising campaign as of December 2015

Amount donated so far: €3500

More about our heating oil for schools project

If you would like to support us

We are grateful for every small amount added to our donation