Fuller House star John Stamos and My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s Nia Vardalos are teaming up to help rebuild an orphanage destroyed by wildfires in Greece.
Both actors who have Greek background (John’s family is from Kakouri in the Peloponnese area and Nia’s is from Kalavryta and Sparta), have joined forces with The Hellenic Initiative, an organisation that provides direct crisis relief to the people of Greece.
John and Nia are raising awareness about 65 children from the Greek Orthodox Lyreion Orphanage on the outskirts of Athens who survived the July wildfires (which claimed the lives of 99 people), but lost everything – their homes, their possessions, their school buses and farm equipment. The kids are now in temporary accomodation, waiting for new homes to be built.
“As a new father, the perils these children face hit me particularly hard,” says John whose son Billy was born in April this year.“That feeling, coupled with the Greek embrace of philotimo, which is tough to translate but means a sense of duty and honour and the desire to help others in need, motivated me.”
Like John, Nia says she also had to help: “My heart aches for these orphaned children who’ve been displaced from their home…..Greeks living around the world care about Greece, and rebuilding this orphanage is a way to help these children in need.”
One of the orphanage’s burnt out trucks. (Photo: The Hellenic Initiative)
The orphanage is completely funded by donations. If you’d like more info on how you can help, check out The Hellenic Initiative Wildfire Relief Fund.
