People visit a new playground built after the wildfires at the seaside town of Mati, near Athens, Greece, on July 12, 2019. As the first anniversary of the wildfires that devastated the seaside town of Mati on July 28, 2018 comes close, residents are still trying to build a new life. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)
ATHENS, July 12 (Xinhua) -- As the first anniversary of the wildfires that devastated the seaside town of Mati, 29 kilometres east of Athens, on July 28, 2018 comes close, residents are still trying to build a new life.
The blaze left behind 102 dead, hundreds of damaged houses, many acres of charred down forested land and the entire Greek nation in a state of shock. It was Greece's worst wildfire in a decade.
The fire-stricken area, a popular holiday resort of the Attica region, is slowly returning to normality. The opening of a playground on Friday brought smiles to children and filled the area with happy chatters, after the tragedy of last summer.
The brand new and modern children's playground, in the "Pefkonas" (pinewood) area, will be an oasis for the children of the community in a place destroyed by fire.
"This space is now very beautiful, because of this sponsorship, this gift. We welcome it with great pleasure, thanking all the responsible authorities, the municipalities of Skopje, Tirana, and Athens," Katia Papakonstantinou, resident of the damaged area told Xinhua.
The interim Mayor of Athens Giorgios Broulias (who took over just before May's local elections until Sept. 1) and the Mayor of Rafina-Pikermi, Vangelis Bournous, inaugurated the playground on Friday.
The project was concluded with the support of the municipality of Athens and donations of two capitals neighboring Greece, Tirana of Albania and Skopje of the Republic of North Macedonia, which showed their solidarity with acts.
"Sponsors have provided four or five playgrounds in the Rafina-Pikermi area. This is the last one delivered and the municipality still has to do some lighting and fence work. It is a fantastic playground that was completed thanks to a sponsorship from the Tirana municipality which has been twinned with the City of Athens, in order to bring back the smile to the lips of children. Children must be our priority," Bournous told Xinhua.
"The City of Athens has developed a large international network and cooperates with many foreign cities. From the very first moment that this tragic event took place last year, the cities of Tirana and Skopje contacted the-then Mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, and made two very important sponsorships," Broulias explained.
"Tirana offered 50,000 euros and this very beautiful playground was built and Skopje gave 15,000 euros to Doctors of the World for the psychosomatic support of the people who had suffered shock" he added.
"I am very happy to be here with the mayor of Rafina. The Mayor of Tirana contributed to the rebuilding of this playground for children. I am very happy to be here and to see the work. Congratulations and we will always be together with the mayor and with Rafina," Ardiana Hobdari, Ambassador of Albania to Greece, noted Xinhua. (1 euro= 1.13 U.S. dollars)
