My heartfelt thanks to everyone who supports my fundraising campaigns and makes them possible!

That’s what I call solidarity in practice. In small ways you can achieve more than you think!

Unfortunately, I can’t change the big world, even if I have some good ideas, but I can change my little world! And with it the world of others and others and others moves…

Just as water draws concentric circles when you throw a small stone into it… that is chaos theory: the smallest changes can have major effects on the entire system due to their non-linear dynamics.

Or the butterfly effect: If a butterfly moves its wings, according to the idea, it can use the resulting air vortex to trigger a larger one, which in turn can use its energy to start a hurricane… an unpredictable chain reaction.

There are now replicas of my fundraising campaigns from Germany and Belgium…

Our good example sets a precedent! It’s wonderful when you can show a path that others can then follow!

I would like to emphasize once again that we particularly support the schools in Raches because they are the only schools in the mountains where it gets really cold and snows. All other schools in Ikaria are near the coast (Evdylos, Agios Kyrikos, Karkynagri) and therefore in a milder climate. Thanks to the numerous generous donations, we can support the children again this year! A big thank you to all of Ikaria’s friends!

I update the tables constantly.

Fundraising campaign winter 2019/2020

Amount donated: €1900

1 liter of heating oil costs €1.52, plus the horrendous transfer costs of the respective banks

Fundraising campaign winter 2018/2019

Amount donated: €3911

1 liter of heating oil costs €1.30, plus the horrendous transfer costs of the respective banks

Winter 2017/2018 fundraising campaign

For the first time we are supporting the state pre-kindergarten in Agios Dimitrios Raches. 3 educators look after 27 small children aged 2-4 whose parents are working. And it’s hard to believe that the pre-kindergarten has been newly opened, but there are not enough financial resources for adequate heating. I mean, the little ones are still crawling around on the floor! So I decided that we as Ikaria friends would like to help here…

Amount donated: €7135

1 liter of heating oil costs €1,040

As of November 2017

The schools’ tanks are still full from our last filling in the spring. As soon as it gets cold again, I’ll take action. At the moment the weather is kind to us…

In the spring, Dr. Stavros Rantas, who founded the “Club Ikaria” in Lugano and whose concerns coincide with mine, asked me to accept €700 collected on various occasions in Italian-speaking Switzerland and to donate it to our donation fund. I suggested to him that we hand the money directly to the school management in Raches during his vacation in Ikaria. So after the school holidays I received a letter of thanks from the school. The management wrote that they used the money to purchase two new computers for teaching. That’s wonderful! This is the most direct route, from donors to people!

In November I was invited to the Hellasfreunde in Bern for the third time during my trip to Switzerland. I was allowed to introduce Ikaria as a special travel destination. After my presentation, which was obviously well received, the collection resulted in 1,000 Swiss francs, which I will use for my fundraising project “Heating Oil for School”. My warmest thanks to all donors! The Hellas Friends Bern (My talk 2015)

Winter 2016/2017 fundraising campaign

Snowstorm Ariadne exceeded all expectations

We were not prepared for Ariadne. Ariadne exceeded everything I could have ever imagined about snow in Greece. It started with sleet on Sunday evening and when I opened the front door on Monday morning I thought I had woken up in Switzerland. A thick blanket of snow lay over everything. Continue reading…

After the snow, lots of rain

Suddenly it rains so hard and so much that the dry earth can no longer absorb the rain. It simply bounces off and flows towards the sea, taking with it everything that isn’t nailed down. Raging rivers and floods quickly form. The heavy rain is usually associated with a storm. Trees are simply snapped like straws and swept away by the masses of water. The roads are then just as impassable as when there is snow. Continue reading…

Amount donated so far: €4000

As of December 2016 – It’s snowing!

Just before school ended at Christmas, we were able to fill the tank of the high school/lyceum for €1000. In the meantime it has snowed in Raches and so the children find warm classrooms when school starts on January 9th. I also consulted with the other schools; they still had full tanks from last winter and didn’t need any support for the time being. But of course I stay in constant contact and as soon as they have used up their supply, we jump in.

I would like to emphasize once again that we particularly support the schools in the Raches region because they are the only schools on the entire island in the mountains where it gets really cold and snows. All other schools in Ikaria are near the coast (Evdylos, Agios Kyrikos) and therefore in a milder climate. Thanks to the numerous generous donations, we can support the children again this year! A big thank you to all of Ikaria’s friends!

The schools, like all of us, are subject to “capital controls”. This means that you are only allowed to withdraw small amounts from the bank per month. So I instructed the gas station attendants to deliver the heating oil and we pay the bill directly to them instead of transferring the money to the schools. This is the only way we can get around this problem. I went against the “nepotism” of schools that has been common practice for years and decided to hire different gas station attendants instead of just favoring one, because everyone has families and has to make ends meet :-). So much for my own little fight against the old-established.

Fundraising campaign winter 2015/2016

Amount donated so far: €3500

Fundraising campaign winter 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015

Total donated amount: €6800

A very big thank you to all donors!

We continue to collect for the schools! Materially, every nook and cranny is missing. Broken windows need to be replaced, the schools need to be repainted, a basketball hoop for the little ones’ playground, ink cartridges for the printer, copy paper. They don’t even have that! Students must purchase copy paper and bring it to schools so teachers can hand out mimeographs! Not to mention the larger expenses: the upper grades, for example, would need a few computers for lessons, as an entire class of twenty children is introduced to the world of computer science on one two computers and many children do not have a PC at home or balls for them the physical education classes, the kids have to bring their own, and so on and so forth. You don’t even know where to start!

Call for donations 2013

Through the research for the article “Ikaria Support Circle” by Kirsten Grimm, it became clear to us that schools in particular need financial support. The government’s austerity policy is immediately noticeable here. Where funds for teachers’ salaries and for the transport of students from the surrounding and more distant villages (such as Karkinagri with a 1 hour drive) were partially canceled without replacement and without further prospects. Word got around that the state would no longer pay for heating oil for the winter. Our big concern was that the children could no longer be taught in heated rooms! I immediately contacted the school principals personally and, after confirming that this was unfortunately the truth, asked them to clarify whether we could support them financially by collecting the heating costs or at least part of them for the coming winter, and from what amount we would actually have to go out with. They were very moved by our desire to support the schools! Thanks to a very generous donation from Bremen and many small donations from Switzerland and Germany, the foundation stone has been laid for a donation account and thus for concrete help!

The schools received heating oil on credit from the gas station all winter long. We “Ikaria friends” had already paid for some of it, then a small sum of money trickled in from the ministry, and after that nothing more came. We waited. The ministry had promised funds, but these never arrived. The schools owed their heating oil to the gas station attendant. The heating season was definitely over and after a lot of back and forth and a lot of patience from everyone, I decided that now was the time to transfer the money from our fundraising to the schools.

At this point, on behalf of the schools, I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your trust and your small and large donations! Every euro/franc counts and is definitely well spent!

Practiced solidarity

If you also feel solidarity and want to help, you can contribute to supporting the schools with a small donation!

The children of Raches thank you very much!

To the donation accounts…