EUROCHIPS

Eurochips welcomes new Greek Member, Freedom Gate

Hello everyone!

Things have been a bit exciting for us this spring/summer with our campaign and some new changes within our network.

I’d like to take this week to introduce you all to an organisation, which has just joined the network as well as some of those who have recently become full members.

To begin this Monday, let me introduce you to the latest expansion Eurochips has taken with the addition of an affiliate member from Greece, called Freedom Gate.

I asked Freedom Gate CEO Tina Torronen to provide a write-up in order to introduce the newly founded organisation to Eurochips.  I’m happy to report that she ambitiously took on the challenge.

Here, in her own words, is a description of the Greek organisation Freedom Gate:

Dear friends,

We are delighted to inform you about the founding of the non-profit organisation Freedom Gate Greece in Athens. The purpose of the organisation is to combat all forms of social exclusion and to support and provide services and information for the target group. Freedom Gate is the first and the only organization in Greece which is exclusively active in the field of the support of the prisoners’ family members and young offenders.       

Our services, in the initial phase, are addressed to prisoners’ families with a great emphasis on their children, to newly released juveniles as well as to correctional staff and other professionals of the field. In the future we hope to extend our activities and to address services also to the prisoners as well as to prisoners’ children who are placed in foster homes or institutions.  

The organisation will be focusing its activities on peer support for prisoners’ families, on establishment of supportive networks for newly released juveniles, as well as on training of correctional staff, professionals and judges in matters of prisoners’ families. Freedom Gate Greece also seek cooperation with local Universities and scientists in order to do research concerning incarceration, the effects of incarceration on the family etc. as well as to carry out legal initiatives and awareness raising campaigns related to prisoners’ families and their rights. We also intend to create and provide informational material such as handbooks, leaflets and to organize informative events both for prisoners’ families and professionals.  

Recognizing that in Greece due to the serious socioeconomic crises, the family has been marginalized and it is affecting especially harsh the families of the prisoners. If we take a closer look at the Greek reality, we will understand the notable differences with the other European countries. In the Greek society the word incarceration is connected to feelings of shame, introversion, isolation and marginalization from the both sides: the family and the state apparatus. Many times coming from already difficult living conditions, prisoners’ children are expected to be able to manage their loss of a parent being unable to understand and manage the situation as well as to confront the stigma and in additional to all, defend their natural rights to equal treatment socially with other children. Without psychosocial support structures, the punishment is automatically transferred into the family environment leading to social exclusion.

The rights of the children and the families of the prisoners’ are at the heart of our actions and there is an urgent need of changing the attitudes and to set new bases for a more just and equitable treatment.

Freedom Gate Greece demands: 

• Decent access to appropriate and child-friendly areas within the penitentiary as well as extended visits for the children
• Proper prison conditions with respect for humanity and the rights to maintain strong family ties
• Correct structures within and outside the penitentiary in order to properly prepare the reconnection with the family 
• Communication between prisoners and their families to be encouraged positively and to be recognized as an important factor in reducing recidivism
• Highlighting and emphasizing the importance of prisoners’ rights for prison leaves which benefit both the prisoners and the families (as it is of standard practice in Greece to inhibit and deny these rights citing various excuses)   

The socioeconomic conditions prevailing at this time in Greece, where there are no financial resources available, hinders the possibility of funding support programs and activities such as ours’. For these reasons and highlighting the acute situation faced, we address to our fellow organisations in Europe an appeal for solidarity and support in order for us to be able to implement our programs and our goals and in exchange to give hope and a way out for a group of people doomed to suffer social isolation.    

As a new organisation we will need as much support and help as possible and it would be necessary for us to cooperate with the other member organisations of the Eurochips network. It would be very important for us to be able to attend educational and training events organized by member organisations, to receive informative material and examples of programs which are in use or have be used and found successful. We are also in need of photographic material for our web site and leaflets which we will create in a near future.  

We thank you for taking the time to read our letter and we look forward hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Törrönen        &        Maria Logara

CEO                               Managing director

If you have further inquiries about Freedom Gate, you can contact them at freedomgate.org@gmail.com.

For further information about our other members, or how to join Eurochips as an organisation or individual, please do not hesitate to contact us.

All the very best,

Ryan Christen for the Eurochips Teamhttp://eurochips.me/2012/07/09/eurochips-welcomes-new-greek-member-freedom-gate/