On Sunday, November 3, the day of the large /multi-child, the large families of Greece celebrate and honor their patrons, Saints Terentius and Neonilli and their seven children.
In Attica, the celebration was held at the Saint Tryfon Church in Pallini, an Athens suburb, by the Associations of Multiple Children of the Prefecture of Attica, which was honored with her presence by the Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Mrs. Sofia Zaharakis. In the rest of Greece, the celebration was organized by the local Associations of Multiple Children – members of ASPE (Supreme Confederation of Multi-Child Parents of Greece).
Our country is on the brink of a demographic collapse, since only for the current year 2024, (data from 1/1/2024 to 2/10/2024) deaths amounted to 97,070 while births are only 51,827, i.e. deaths are 45,243 more than births!, the country’s multi-child world resists strongly in stopping the decline of the low birth rate and continues to self-sacrificingly invest in children, who are the future of the country.
The support of the large family is a sine qua non condition for the revitalization of the Greek society and economy, as the human capital contributed by the large families is of great importance for an aging country like Greece.
Large families expect stronger support measures from the Government through the National Demographic Action Plan, recently introduced and presented by Minister Zaharakis, because they are strongly affected by the greatly increased cost of living, by the heavy taxation of both income and property tax, without proportional exemptions and reductions to compensate for the costs of raising their children.
In statements made to the Greek Radio Television station, the Minister Ms. S. Zaharakis mentioned the extra funding secured by the Government for nurseries and kindergarden vouchers, the digitization of the multi-child status certificate and the expansion of the housing program, as part of the Government’s efforts to support the family and those with many children.
The Supreme Confederation of Large Children of Greece congratulated the Minister and the Government for securing more funding for family policies and also asked that no large family should be left without the cash child benefit, in view of the implementation of new property and other criteria to be applied onto the already means-tested child benefits given to families, to help tackle the costs of upbringing children.
The first Sunday of November has been named by law as the multi-child/large families’ day in Greece, since 2006. It is an opportunity to remind publicly the importance of supporting large families and acknowledge their contribution to society and to the economy.