Parents Abandon Kids In Hard Times; Greek Crisis Leads To More Orphans
BALDWIN: None of the reports we have brought you thus far on the Greek financial crisis really captures the human toll quite like this next story. It's really tough to fathom, to wrap your head around, but as CNN's Matthew Chance reports, desperate parents no longer able to care for their own children are dropping them off now at orphanages.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): These are the youngest victims of Greece's economic despair, abandoned not through lack of love, but money. We gained access to this orphanage in Athens, where care workers say they've witnessed a surge in the number of Greek families unable to feed and clothe their children.</s>STELIOS SIFNIOS, SOCIAL WORKER: The first time for us and I'm working here since 1982. So for the first time, I see so many poor families ask for help for their own children.</s>CHANCE: Austerity and years of recession are literally breaking up families here. (on camera): Of course, there have always been orphans, children in care in Greece, but what's changed over the course of the past two years is this. Previously, children in care came from problem families. Parents who were drug addicts or alcoholic, but over the past two years, that transformed dramatically. The vast majority now come from families who simply can't afford to look after their children. (voice-over): Parents like Kassiani Papadopoulou, single mother, unemployed, and unable, she says, to care for her three children. We caught one of her rare visits. (on camera): Pleased to meet you. How are you? Mikaelah. Good to see you. (voice-over): Giving up this family, she told me, was painful. But in Greece's economic climate, still her best option.</s>KASSIANI PAPADOPOULOU, MOTHER (through translator): It's really difficult, really tragic for a true mother to leave her children, but when you understand that they are not at fault and deserve a future, it's better to make a move like than have them beside you without even a plate of food.</s>CHANCE (on camera): Who do you blame for putting you and your family in this situation? Do you blame the government? Do you blame the economic crisis? Who do you hold responsible?</s>PAPADOPOULOU: For me, it's all those who govern. They've all looked out for themselves instead of the people and the poor like us should be the responsibility of the state.</s>CHANCE (voice-over): But this is the terrible social crisis of Greece's economic crisis. Even for its youngest, most vulnerable, the state can barely afford to care.</s>BALDWIN: Matthew Chance joining me now live from Athens. Just looking at the kids in your piece, they're old enough, you know. And I'm just wondering what the parents, how they even try to explain how they have to put their little ones in an orphanage. How severe a problem is this, Matthew, in Greece?</s>CHANCE: I think it's, Brooke, a growing problem, certainly. I have to say that most families who are encountering economic troubles at the moment in Greece, that they're assisted by charities like the one we visited to keep the children at home. But inevitably, as the economic crisis worsens, and it is worsening in Greece, then some families, particularly single parent who vulnerable, they fall through the cracks.</s>BALDWIN: Matthew Chance, thank you for your reporting for us there in Greece. And as the crisis in Europe really threatens America, my next guest says we've got to do something and we've got to do something fast before this economy falls to its knees. Ben Stein says he has an idea. It will make Americans pretty angry, but it might be the only solution. We're going to challenge him on that, Mr. Stein and I next.