Here from BBC on how the Greeks are dealing with the collapse of their system:
But the social situation has only worsened, the demonstrators - still incensed - feel ignored and many Greeks are now unrolling a quiet revolution.
Tucked away in a side-street of Marousi, a hilly, green suburb of northern Athens, you come across the local garden initiative.
Marousi's mayor has transformed the land from a derelict dumping ground into small allotments for 40 families battered by the current economic climate.
The sound of raking and digging fills the air.
What, at first glance, may simply look like a healthy hobby is actually a lifeline for people in this community.
Sowing seeds
Argyro Papazoglou and her husband Niko are pensioners. They tell me they worked hard all their lives but have now seen their state pensions drastically reduced.
"We had to do something," Argyro said. The allotment, she explains, provides them with 50% of their food needs, allowing them to make much-needed savings on supermarket bills.
The Marousi allotment project is one of a growing number of examples in Greece where people have pretty much given up asking for help from outside - whether from their national government or the EU.
Instead, they are taking matters in to their own hands and finding ways to help themselves, their neighbours and their local community.
As well as feeding themselves, all the families working on the allotment hand over a chunk of their produce to others in need.
The fruits and vegetables are passed on to what Greeks have dubbed a "social supermarket". It is an idea catching on all over Greece.
Some of these supermarkets are supported by the state but a growing number of private initiatives stack the shelves with goods - from oranges to olive oil to nappies - donated by individuals or companies.
Ray of light
Social supermarkets allow low income families to shop at cut-down prices.
The money they pay is then used to provide the most destitute with goods for free, even helping them with gas and electricity bills.
Greece's Child and Family group supports more than 4,500 families and has a growing army of voluntary aid workers, doctors and dentists.
