El Mundo Features Greek Reporter’s “Hire a Greek” Initiative

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo published an extensive report on the innovative website HireaGreek.com, created last March by Greek Reporter. The idea for the initiative that aims to help jobless Greeks find jobs came from Anastasios Papapostolou, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greek Reporter.

The proposed site aims to offer unemployed Greeks the chance of communicating and working from distance (or not) with employers of the Greek diaspora, which counts about six million people spread across some of the world’s richest countries.

According to the report, the idea came by of the thousands of Greeks who have chosen to leave the country during a crushing economic crisis. Papapostolou, a 26-year-old journalist, lives in Los Angeles, from where he runs Greekreporter, with news in English and Greek addressed to the Hellenic Diaspora on all continents.

“I understood that there was a communication gap between foreign investors and unemployed in Greece, especially those that can do computer work without having to leave the country, and tried to fill that niche,” Papapostolou told El Mundo.

Eight months after its creation, the site has 25,000 users and millions of visitors from all over the world. Its impact has been widespread, gaining both positive and negative reviews and comments.

Some have criticized the Greek webpage for encouraging the unemployed to leave Greece, but its creator defends his idea: “I think if people want to go, they are going to go. If you really want to travel abroad and find opportunity on our website, that’s fine, ” he explained to El Mundo.

Asked about the crisis plaguing Greece and the negative image of the Greeks abroad, Papapostolou defended the Greek worker commitment by noting that the Greeks have a unique determination to do their jobs. “President Clinton said a few weeks ago that the Greeks work 25% more than the Germans. The Hellenes are people striving,” he added.

For the creator of ‘Hire a Greek’, the country’s biggest problem is that there is growing hopelessness. Businesses are shutting down one after the other leaving the Greeks without job. “It’s not just an economic issue, but also a human one. Many people do not know what to do when they get up in the morning and can think of no possible solution to their problems,” laments Papapostolou.

Like many Greeks, however, Papapostolou told the Spanish news agency that he believes his country will eventually overcome the crisis. “We have survived for 5,000 years of history. What are now counting? Five years of crisis? I’m sure that Greece will continue to grow and will emerge much stronger than before,” he said.