Citizens Advice Bureaux: a rare commodity in Greece

I assume many of you who have spent some time or live in Greece may have suffered mistreatment at the hands of the Greek state and its various agencies. Now, however, Citizens Advice Bureaux are also available in Greece. You can turn to them for any problems faced in your contacts with the Greek state - provided, of course, you ARE NOT in a hurry and you live in or around Athens. Why do I say that? Because yesterday, when in need of a Citizens Advice Bureau I found out that, alas, there is ONLY ONE in Greece located - where else - in Athens. So, how was I to make contact with them from Salonica? Fortunately, one could also send a report of their problem by fax or post, and that is exactly what I did. At the same time, however, I remembered something else. About ten years ago I was living in England. So, memories came to me of how different things were there with Citizens Advice Bureaux. Οur advice helps people resolve their debt, benefits, housing, legal, discrimination, employment, immigration, consumer and other problems and is available to everyone regardless of race, gender, sexuality, age, nationality, disability or religion: this is what they promised and I can now testify that it was exactly like that. Despite the fact that I was not a British citizen I got all the help I needed. How did I discover them? I just took a walk on the one and only central road of the small town in which I then lived. That town was Leamington Spa. Have you heard of it? I guess not. Still, even in this little provincial spa town one could find a Citizens Advice Bureau, to which I turned and, as I already said, was helped a great deal. Today, ten years after that, I made a telephone call to Athens, to the one and only Greek Citizens Advice Bureau to ask if they received the report I faxed to them yesterday. They said that there seemed to be no record of it and that I’d better call again, come Monday or Tuesday.