In Greece, faced with a decline in its rural population, a teacher saves her school

LETTER FROM ATHENS

“The villages that are dying are those in which schools are closing. But here, in Fourna, we acted before that happened”Panagiota Diamanti, a 30-year-old teacher, rejoiced in September in the Greek media. The young woman managed to convince a family of six children to settle in her small mountain village of Fourna, located four hours by car from Athens, and to avoid the worst.

The primary school in which she teaches had, in 2023, only three pupils. With the departure of two children for the college located in a neighboring village, she feared that the establishment would close permanently at the start of the school year in September 2024, as was the case for nearly 200 schools across Greece.

Panagiota Diamanti did not choose to settle in Fourna by chance. Her father is from this village and, for her, who until then had been teaching in the city, finding herself faced with so few children, what's more, not having the same access to culture or extra-curricular activities as their classmates from big cities, constituted an educational challenge.

In August, with the support of the Orthodox priest of this town of less than 200 inhabitants, the teacher published an announcement on the social network Facebook inviting families to settle in Fourna. She explains that the municipality and the Church are ready to offer a house to these new residents and financial assistance during the first months of their installation, while they find work. In just one week, Panagiota Diamanti received nearly a thousand calls, the Facebook post was shared more than 10,000 times and nearly a hundred people applied, reports local website Tachydromos. The story made the rounds in the Greek press.

Panagiota Diamanti and the priest of Fourna went through the applications and interviewed the candidates before deciding to welcome the Emmanouil family, made up of six children, whose ages range between 18 months and 14 years. The Emmanouils lived for a time in Germany, where they tried their luck like many Greeks during the public debt crisis which affected the country from 2009.

Serious demographic crisis

Returning to Athens, they faced serious financial difficulties and were tempted by the experience of life in a small mountain village in the region of Eurytania. M^me Emmanouil is a hairdresser and hopes to continue her profession in a nearby salon, while her husband is considering becoming a forest ranger. In just ten years, the population of Eurytania has decreased by 13%.

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