Who we are
Ronald McDonald House Charities Greece or RMHC Hellas is an independently run, non-for profit organization registered in Greece.
Established in 2023, RMHC Hellas will create and support programs that directly impact the health and wellbeing of children and their families.
RMHC is there for families when they need it most – in their own communities to keep families close. Our mission is to provide a nurturing environment for ill children and their families. Our vision is to deliver hope, love and laughter with excellence and compassion.
This is how RMHC Hellas fulfils the mission of Keeping Families Close.
RMHC Hellas is part of the RMHC global network which delivers programs and services in more than 60 countries and regions, benefitting the lives of millions of children and their families around the world.
The cornerstones of our work
Care that starts with the family
For a child, the family is the center of the world.
For us, it is also the center of his care.
Giving families the opportunity to face the burden of the disease together has always been the heart of our work
Ensure access to the best possible care.
Wherever they are.
When your child is ill you want them to get the best care possible even if they are hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
The Family Room enables families to access specialist medical care by providing a place to stay.
Our relationship with the "Aghia Sophia" Children's Hospital
Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital in Athens
RMHC Hellas’ first project is the creation of RMHC Family Rooms at the Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital in Athens. The RMHC Family Rooms will offer a welcoming respite from the ward, moments from the child’s bedside.
Founded in 1900, the Aghia Sophia has evolved into the largest paediatric reference centre in Greece. It has 45 departments, laboratories and clinics with 750 beds with a staff complement which includes 450 physicians and more than 200 other healthcare professionals.
More than 55,000 patients are accommodated at the Aghia Sophia every year with a further 200,000 people receiving outpatient care. The Aghia Sophia provides multidisciplinary, integrated healthcare for children. It employs highly skilled specialists and also trains many young doctors and other healthcare professionals, who also participate in research. Numerous academic and non-academic trials take place at the hospital.
The hospital owns 4 intensive care units for children and adolescents, besides a number of specialist departments which are unique in Greece.
Our relationship with McDonald's
McDonald’s
McDonald’s has been the founding mission partner to RMHC 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 RMHC support families with sick children with stability and vital resources.
McDonald’s support extends from monetary contributions and volunteerism to cause-related marketing promotions and the space to place RMHC coin boxes in restaurants to help raise money for Chapters around the world.
McDonald’s has helped RMHC 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 creating RMHC 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 RMHC, giving us the opportunity to place our donation boxes in McDonald’s restaurants. Additionally, Premier Capital Hellas contributes to RMHC from every Happy Meal sold throughout the year. Premier Capital Hellas also provides ongoing administrative support to RMHC and makes our cause the focus of the annual McHappy Day fund-raising campaign.
The History of RMHC
The Ronald McDonald House Charities was born out of the unlikely partnership of Dr Audrey Evans, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, McDonald’s and the American Football team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Fred Hill, a player for the Philadelphia Eagles, had a daughter suffering from leukaemia, which prompted the team to raise over $100,000 to support 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.
In turn, this request was met by Ed Rensi, an area manager for McDonald’s. The company was using the Eagles players as part of an advertising campaign and offered to donate the proceeds from their ‘Shamrock Shake’ to the cause.
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 Charities has spread across the world, forming new and independent branches in over 60 regions and countries.
RMHC programs help alleviate some financial burdens of families with sick children.
RMHC has helped families save millions in hotel and meal expenses. RMHC’s global reach supports communities around the world – 90% of top children’s hospitals globally are home to at least one RMHC program.
Across the globe, there are now more than 380 Ronald McDonald Houses, more than 265 Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, and more than 40 Care Mobile Clinics, besides a growing number of Learning Centers.
Meet our co-founder.
Dr Audrey Evans
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 paediatric oncologist and researcher of neuroblastoma, a cancer affecting babies and children.
In the 1960s, she was recruited by Dr C Everett Koop to open an oncology service at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr Audrey and her team began to see patients from a greater distance, not just from Philadelphia. It was this experience that sparked her vision to give families a place to live whilst their children are undergoing treatment.
