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Friday, February 15, 2013
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Paphos rallies but numbers growing Overwhelming response to aid poor families now heading for 400 By Bejay Browne
T
HE response to an appeal in Paphos to initially help 250 poor families – the number has now grown to 380 with 30 registering on one day this week alone – has been overwhelming, volunteers have said. The appeal has even brought forth a medical doctor who is now offering his services for free to the genuinely needy. Dr. Dorel Dimcea, a cardiology specialist, will give all GP services for free as well as those connected with cardiac issues. “After reading about this situation in the Cyprus Mail, I wanted to do something to help. I was brought up in a medical family who taught me that we must care about each other and show humanity,” he said. Dr Dimcea saw his first patient this week. “She is a lady with breathing problems and is in need of help,” he said. A number of events have helped the volunteers to raise money, food and clothes in the past week to help the families who are not officially entitled to assistance as they fall outside municipal boundaries. Pavlina Patsalou who heads up the group of volunteers along with Paphos councilor George Sofokleous, have been feeding hundreds of Paphos families for the last 18 months. They started with 20 families, which grew to 250 and now numbers 380 with 30
new families registering for help on Monday morning alone. According to Patsalou one of her visitors on Monday morning was a woman pregnant with twins. She and her husband are both out of work and they desperately needed help. “We gave her a carrycot and other items and we would like to do more to help them,” she said. Patsalou appealed for more volunteers who she said were urgently needed to help sort through the huge donations of clothes which are currently in “such a mess.” “We have so much but we have no idea what we’ve got,” she added. Last Saturday Paul Clarke aka Cycling Cyprus, and members of the Paphos cycling club rode on static bikes outside a supermarket in Peyia to raise awareness of the dire situation and to encourage shoppers to donate food. “It was a fantastic day; more than 100 people came to donate food items as well as clothes and baby items. We are now planning a similar event outside Kolios butchery and delicatessen in Paphos on Saturday February 23rd,” said Clarke. Patsalou said: ”The response of the general public has been overwhelming and we are so grateful to Paul for organising the cycling event, as well as everyone who donated food and money and the volunteers who helped out.”
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‘ONE BILLION RISING’
Members of the Creativity Dance Studio organised a ‘Flash Mob’ yesterday at the Mall of Cyprus in Nicosia with men and women volunteers from the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) participating in an event aimed at ending violence against women. The event was part of the global campaign ‘One Billion Rising’ and marked the 15th anniversary of the V-Day movement where men and women unite their voices demanding an end to violence against women. According to MIGS one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. Events are being planned in 186 countries across the globe. The driving force behind the ‘One Billion Rising’ global protest is playwright and activist Eve Ensler, author of the Tony Award-winning Vagina Monologues. The event date was chosen deliberately to celebrate
the 15-year anniversary of the movement V-Day Ensler’s anti-violence movement against women and girls. Since 1998, the V-Day movement has raised some €66 million for anti-violence programmes and education. ‘One Billion Rising’ is a timely and creative protest with the specific aim to raise awareness. From Seoul to Toulouse, from Namibia to Uruguay, people in 194 countries organised group dances, arranging musical concerts and performing excerpts from The Vagina Monologues. The Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) is a non-profit organisation which promotes and contributes to projects of social, political, and economic themes relating to gender with an emphasis on the Mediterranean region (Christos Theodorides)