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SOCIAL
WORK
"Volunteering combines the love of an amateur, the consistency of a professional, the discipline of a soldier and the selflessness of a senior man."
"The definition of success to me is to manage to leave to this world more than what you got."
FEEDING PROGRAM AT HOSTEL OF HOSPITALITY / XENONAS FILOXENIAS
Since April 2017, Dimitris Peppas has been editing and signing the feeding program at the Accommodation for Unaccompanied Children, where unaccompanied adolescent refugees, aged 14-18, are hosted. In the hostel, with a capacity of 25 people, children enjoy a safe environment and have access to education services, psychosocial support and social integration.
SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES
The purpose of SOS Children's Villages is to help children who need care and protection because they are separated from their family environment.
In the context of educating children and adolescents on proper nutrition principles, Dimitris Peppas voluntarily created the child and nutrition program so that children learn to love proper nutrition and form healthy standards for their body image.
Since 2013, actions are carried out on an annual basis such as training of SOS mothers in healthy eating and proper approach, nutritional monitoring of adolescents who stay at the hostel of adolescents as well as experiential training of SOS village children in healthy eating. Dimitris Peppas, the educator, the SOS mom and the children all eat their lunch together discussing the habits and preferences of the children.
Municipality of Elliniko - Argyroupolis - Model Municipality in terms of nutrition, exercise and health.
Childhood obesity and the role of school
The school environment plays a major role in shaping the habits of children and adolescents regarding both nutrition and important physical activity; and this shouldn't come as a surprise - just consider that children spend a significant part of their day at school (about 6 hours / day) for quite some time in their lives (11-14 years).
Childhood obesity is a modern scourge on a global scale, not only because its rates are alarmingly high and continue to rise, but also because it has been linked to serious health consequences in later life. About 70% of obese adolescents are expected to become obese adults and have an increased risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and poor quality of life.
As far as Greece is concerned, the situation is alarming. According to a recent study, Greek children are "champions" in obesity, and more specifically in central type obesity. This seems to be, among other things, due to low attachment to the Mediterranean diet, lack of sleep and a sedentary lifestyle (reduced physical activity - increased screen exposure time). At the same time, overweight and obese children in Greece show rates of high blood pressure that are among the highest in Europe!
Considering the importance of the problem and the fact that Greek children spend 1/4 - often 1/3 - of their day at school, it is understandable that it is necessary to implement school policies that support a healthy eating environment. However, according to the World Health Organization, Greece is far behind in this field. Indicatively, we mentioned that it was found that only 1 out of 10 schools have fresh fruit available, while fresh vegetables are even more hard to find, since students have access to fresh fruit and vegetables only in 1 out of 20 schools!
My goal in working with a team of health scientists is to change this. The first Municipality that dealt with this serious problem is the Municipality of Elliniko Argyroupolis, which with coordinated actions we intend to make a model municipality in terms of nutrition, exercise and health.
WE SUPPORT WOMEN
Since September 2018, Dimitris Peppas and his co-workers Ioanna Papadopoulou (clinical dietitian), Eleni Peppa (psychologist) and Aris Papacharalambos (psychologist) provide their services free of charge every Thursday to women who are experiencing or suffered breast cancer.
The appointments are made at the office of Dimitris Peppas and the contact phone number is 6909850023.
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