It is a place for families to receive care, find support, stay nourished, take a breath. A place of togetherness.
Ronald McDonald House Charities Hellas is an independently run, non-for- profit organization registered in Greece. Established in 2023, Ronald McDonald House Charities Hellas created and supported programs that directly impact the health and wellbeing of children and their families.
Ronald McDonald House is there for families when they need it most – in their own communities and close to the healthcare their children need.
Our mission is to provide essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families and promote healing when children need healthcare.
Ronald McDonald House believes in an approach to healthcare that considers the holistic needs of the whole family, called family-centered care.
Family-centered care is an approach to healthcare where the entire family is fully supported, engaged and involved in their child’s medical care.
In family-centered care, every aspect of support is designed to involve and empower families, with the goal of improving quality of care, psychosocial well-being, clinical outcomes and the overall patient and hospital experience.
We began our work with the first Ronald McDonald House Family Room at “Aghia Sophia” Children’s Hospital in November of 2024. Following the successful launch of this program, we expanded our impact through a second Ronald McDonald House Family Room at the “Elena Venizelou” General-Maternity Hospital, continuing our mission of providing a home away from home inside the hospital.
Ronald McDonald House Hellas, is part of the global network that operates for more than 50 years, fostering health and wellbeing for children and their families. Today, the network offers more than 690 overnight stay programs, exceeding 2.8 mil stays, in more than 62 countries, affecting the lives of millions of people.
Because when a child is hospitalized, care extends far beyond the child. It embraces the entire family.
Family-Centered care
For a child, family is the center of the world.
For us, family is at the heart of everything we do.
We believe that no family should face a child’s illness alone. We give families the opportunity to navigate the challenges of hospitalization together, supporting one another every step of the way.
Because when family stays together, strength grows and hope has room to flourish.
Supporting Families and Motherhood
When a child falls ill, families do everything they can to be by their child’s side, even if it means travelling hundreds of kilometres from home.
At a time when Greece faces significant demographic challenges, supporting families, motherhood and parenthood is essential. Through cooperation with public hospitals, we can help parents stay close to their children and ensure that no family has to face these difficult moments alone.
Ronald McDonald House Charities Hellas’ first project was the creation of Ronald McDonald Family Room at the Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital in Athens. The Ronald McDonald Family Room offers a welcoming respite from the ward, just a few meters away from the child’s bedside.
Founded in 1900, the Aghia Sophia is the largest paediatric referral hospital in Greece. It includes 45 departments, clinics, and laboratories with 750 beds and a multidisciplinary team of more than 650 healthcare professionals, including 450 physicians and more than 200 other healthcare professionals.
Each year the hospital serves more than 55,000 and over 200,000 outpatient visits. Aghia Sophia delivers comprehensive, integrated healthcare services for children and adolescents and plays a leading role in medical education, training, and research. The hospital employs highly specialized healthcare professionals and hosts numerous academic and clinical research programs. Aghia Sophia is also home to four pediatric and adolescent intensive care units, as well as several highly specialized departments that are unique nationwide, making it one of the most important pediatric healthcare institutions in Greece
Ronald McDonald House Family Room at ‘Elena-Venizelou’ General-Maternity Hospital was the second project of Ronald McDonald House Hellas. The Ronald McDonald House Family Room, offers mothers, who have recently given birth and need to remain in the hospital with their newborn child, a warm resting space.
Founded in 1933 through a donation by Elena Venizelou, the General Maternity Hospital “Elena Venizelou” was established to provide modern maternal and neonatal healthcare. Over the decades, it has grown into one of Greece’s leading public maternity hospitals, serving thousands of patients annually and playing a significant role in women’s healthcare, medical education, and clinical training.
The hospital cared for more than 630 infants in neo-natal intensive care units and served more than 11.000 unique patients last year. In 2024, more than 600 expectant mothers traveled from outside the Attica region to receive care at the hospital. The hospital also collaborates with universities and academic institutions to train the next generation of physicians and healthcare professionals.
McDonald’s has been the founding mission partner of Ronald McDonald House since 1974.
From the moment the first Ronald McDonald House opened in Philadelphia, the entire McDonald’s system (owner/operators, suppliers, employees and customers) has helped Ronald McDonald House support families with children receiving medical care by providing stability, comfort, and vital resources. McDonald’s support extends from financial contributions and volunteerism to cause-related marketing initiatives and the placement of Ronald McDonald House coin boxes in restaurants to raise funds for Chapters around the world.
McDonald’s has helped Ronald McDonald House positively impact millions of children and their families and continues to provide valuable resources and support to help us expand our core programmes and services. This partnership was also instrumental in establishing Ronald McDonald House Hellas, which was set up through the initiative of Premier Capital Hellas, the operator of McDonald’s in Greece.
Premier Capital Hellas continues to provide support to Ronald McDonald House, by providing the opportunity to place our donation boxes in McDonald’s restaurants. Additionally, Premier Capital Hellas contributes to Ronald McDonald House through every Happy Meal sold throughout the year. Premier Capital Hellas also makes our mission the focus of the annual McHappy Day fund-raising campaign.
The Ronald McDonald House was born from an unlikely partnership between Dr Audrey Evans, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, McDonald’s and the American Football team, the Philadelphia Eagles. The idea emerged when Fred Hill, a player of the Philadelphia Eagles, was confronted with the reality of having a daughter undergoing treatment for leukemia. Witnessing the challenges faced by families of hospitalized children, the Eagles rallied together and raised more than $100,000 in support of the hospital.
This was met with much gratitude from Dr Evans and her team, but also with a request for another $32,000 to fund a house in which the families of the children in the hospital could get proper rest, away from the ward. The request was embraced by Ed Rensi, an area manager for McDonald’s.
In return Ed asked that the house be known as the Ronald McDonald House and on 15 October 1974, the first Ronald McDonald House opened its doors. Since then, Ronald McDonald House has spread across the world, forming new and independent branches in over 60 regions and countries.
Today, Ronald McDonald House programs help families remain close to their children while reducing some of the emotional, practical, and financial burdens associated with medical treatment; By providing accommodation, meals, and essential support services.
The impact of Ronald McDonald House extends across the globe.
More than 90% of the world’s leading children’s hospitals globally are home to at least one Ronald McDonald House program.
Across the globe, there are now more than 380 Ronald McDonald House Programs, more than 265 Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, and more than 40 Care Mobile Clinics, besides a growing number of Learning Centres.
Born in 1925, Dr Audrey Evans was one of very few women studying medicine in the 1940s.
Today, Dr Audrey Evans is recognised as a world-renowned pediatric oncologist and researcher of neuroblastoma, a cancer affecting infants and children.
In the 1960s, she was recruited by Dr C Everett Koop to establish an oncology service at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr Audrey and her team began treating patients from increasingly distant regions, rather than solely from the Philadelphia area, she witnessed firsthand the challenges families faced while their children underwent treatment. This experience inspired her vision of providing families with a place to stay close to their hospitalized children, laying the foundation for what would become the first Ronald McDonald House.
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Real families.
Life experiences.
Measurable social impact.
“For the past two months, Sakis and I have been staying at the @ronaldmcdonaldhousegreece while our son is being treated in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at “Agia Sofia” Children’s Hospital.
Here, we have met people who were once strangers but have now become family. People who share the same pain, the same worries, and the same weight on their shoulders. Every night, we sit together, exhausted from anxiety, sharing our thoughts, our fears, but also a little hope.
We eat together like one big family, reminding ourselves that the warmth of home never truly disappears. In this place, pain becomes a little easier to bear, a little less overwhelming, because you are not carrying it alone. Because you know that the person sitting across from you truly understands and can hear the silent cries of your heart, without you having to put your fears into words. Sometimes, we don’t even need to speak… because even in silence, we understand one another.
From the bottom of our hearts, we want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who has made this House possible and continues to keep it alive. Because for us, it is so much more than just a place to spend the night or a space to get through the day. It has become our home in Athens, just as our beloved son always calls it.
With heartfelt appreciation and gratitude,
Meni & Sakis 
“
