Feature: Debt crisis has made life of Greek senior citizens harder

Each senior citizen in debt laden Greece today has a personal story to tell. The common ground in all narrations is that the six years of deep recession and austerity measures introduced to exit the crisis has made everyday life of Greeks in their older age harder.

Nikos Kostouros, a 84-year-old pensioner lives in a small apartment next to his daughter in the center of Athens. His pension has been cut by 30 percent in recent years, but he doesn't complain.

He has lived the horror of the Nazi occupation in Greece, in his hometown in Tripoli, located in the center of the Peloponnese peninsula when he was a young boy, so he knows from firsthand what hardship means, he told Xinhua.

"Senior people in Greece today suffer not only because of the health problems they may have, but also from the lack of support from the Greek state. All the benefits and privileges you have worked for all your life have disappeared due to the economic crisis," he said.

He explained that he and his elderly friends are anxious when thinking that they may need to be submitted to hospital when they do not feel well because of the huge shortages in supplies, medicines, personnel and doctors.

"Anxiety and fear prevails. When I meet my friends at the coffeehouse in the morning, they constantly complain about the difficulties they face. We all wonder how much our pensions will be reduced next month and how are we going to manage to pay for our medicines and the basic food at the super market," he said.

Kostouros said he can handle hardship for himself, but he feels more frustrated when he thinks about the unemployment and the difficulties of younger generations.

Over the past six years about a quarter of Greece's working force is jobless. Unemployment rates, especially among youth, reach 60 percent.

"Before the economic crisis, all the members of my family and the average family had jobs and they helped each other. Now you see young strong men and women, well educated and eager to contribute to society, helpless with no job positions depending on the grandparents' pension to cover basic needs," he said.

About 19.3 percent of Greeks today are above 65 years old, according to the national statistics authority ELSTAT.

According to the 2015 Global Age Watch Index of the nongovernmental organization Help Age International regarding the standards of living of elderly people, Greece ranks 79th among 96 countries, behind many developing countries like Venezuela and South Africa.

Themistoklis Gatis, a 76-year-old pensioner, is one of Greece's elderly persons who do not have children and grandchildren to care for each other.

He lives in an elderly care center the last two and a half years. After a severe problem with his health, he lost all his money to the doctors and medicines, and had to stay at a state nursing home.

He is not happy there, he told Xinhua, saying it does not feel like home.

"It is difficult in here. The food is tasteless like in the hospital and due to spending cuts there are no activities to spend your time creatively and feel alive again as an active member of society. I feel no one is really interested in us," he told Xinhua.

As soon as he gets stronger, he wants to return back to his small flat at the central Athens district of Exarchia and his daily walks in the park. He feels nostalgic when he talks about it.

Born in the city of Grevena in northern Greece, he never got married. He had to take care of his brothers and sisters as the elder child in his family.

When he was 14 years old he moved to Athens to work at the mines of Lavrio in the southeastern part of Attica. He took part in several strikes and demonstrations for workers' rights.

Like Kostouros, Gatis feels sadder for the present and future of younger Greeks.

"When we were young we fought for the people's right to work 35 hours and 5 days a week and earn a decent salary to live in dignity. And now in the 21st century young Greeks -- the luckiest ones who get a job -- have to work for 60 hours without knowing if they will get paid next month or for wages that are not enough to cover basic needs," he said, frustrated. Endit