Specialised field teams (Street Work) of Médecins du Monde work for homeless people living in the urban areas of Athens and Thessaloniki who do not have the necessary personal protection measures and face significant accessibility barriers to health services, public information and basic food and hygiene items.
Each MdM-Greece team, consisting of a general practitioner, a nurse, a social worker and an administrator, provides medical care and monitoring, social counselling and information on where to get help (feeding, primary health care). In addition, the Street Work teams provide basic necessities (sleeping bags, blankets, etc.) as well as snacks and water. The MdM-Greece teams reach out to the growing number of homeless people in order to provide them with direct medical and social support.
At the same time, Médecins du Monde Street Work teams intensify their actions when extreme weather events occur. During the winter months, they distribute hot food, tea and cold weather protection items at the port of Piraeus where homeless people are concentrated and low temperatures cause additional problems.
Areas of action
The planning of the Street Work action has been carried out in such a way as to cover the needs of the homeless in the urban areas of Athens and Piraeus as well as neighbouring municipalities such as the Municipality of Kallithea and Tavros. The mapping of the places where mass homeless citizens live includes 14 main living places, with the highest concentration of the population in public transport stations, in central squares near commercial streets and in the Port of Piraeus.
At the same time, in the context of actions for the support – protection and care of vulnerable population groups, Médecins du Monde carry out interventions aimed at providing primary medical care through their mobile medical unit, in cooperation with the municipality of Thessaloniki.
The medical intervention takes place once a week, in a central point of Thessaloniki, and its purpose is to provide medical care services to people living on the streets of the city or in precarious housing conditions. The intervention is implemented in the framework of the cooperation between the Municipality of Thessaloniki and Médecins du Monde.