ATHENS, Greece - January 11, 2012 - Children are being abandoned on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who can no longer afford to look after them.

Youngsters are being dumped by parents who are struggling to make ends meet in what is fast becoming the most tragic human consequence of the ongoing Depression in Europe.

It comes at a time when pharmacists have revealed that the country has almost run out of aspirin, while multi-billion euro austerity measures filter their way through society.

Athens' Ark of the World youth center said four children, including a newborn baby, had been left on its doorstep in recent months.

One mother, it said, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter Natasha.

A teacher four-year-old Anna clutching a note that read, “I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.”

Another desperate mother, Maria, was forced to give up her eight-year-old daughter, Anastasia, after losing her job.

She looked for work for more than a  year, having to leave her child at home for hours at a time, and lived off food handouts from the local church.

Maria said, “Every night I cry alone at home, but what can I do? It hurt my heart, but I didn’t have a choice.” She now works in a cafe but only earns £16 per day and so cannot afford to take her daughter back.

Center founder Fr. Antonios Papanikolaou said, “Over the last year we've had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us. They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their (children), (and) they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need.”

Further evidence of Greeks feeling the pinch of austerity measures is the lack of availability of aspirin and other medicines in the country.

Pharmacists are struggling to stock their shelves as the Greek government, which sets the prices for drugs, keeps them artificially low.

This means that firms are selling these drugs for a higher price outside of Greece, leading to stock depletion for Greeks.

Mina Mavrou, who runs one of the country's 12,000 pharmacies, said she spent hours each day pleading with drug makers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients.

She said that even when drugs were available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.

Meanwhile, talks about private sector creditors paying for part of a second Greek bailout are going badly, according to senior European bankers.

That raises the prospect that euro zone governments will have to increase their contributions to the aid package.

There are suggestions in euro zone government circles that ministers are coming to the realization they may need to bolster Greece's planned second bailout, worth 130 billion euros, if the voluntary bond swap scheme, which is a key part of the overall package, falls short of expectations.

Stumping up yet more money would be politically difficult in Germany and other countries in the northern part of the currency bloc.