Appeal to help feed Paphos needy
By Bejay Browne
Supporters, volunteers and donations are urgently required to help feed 120 families in Paphos, according to a new local charity.
‘Saint George’s Solidarity’ was officially registered on June 18 and replaces the now defunct Solidarity, a similar charitable initiative which was set up in 2012 to help those on low incomes of any nationality or background living in the Paphos district, providing them with the basic essentials.
It closed in 2016, after of officials stated that the numbers of those in need had fallen significantly due to better state benefits and a general economic upturn.
However, President of the charity, Pavlina Patsalou, (who was also a co-founder of the original Solidarity charity), told the Paphos Post that there are hundreds of needy people that are ‘slipping through the cracks’ of society in Paphos, and that nothing is being done to help them. She said that many just don’t have enough to cover the most basic of needs.
“I am a volunteer and I chose to help these people because no-one seems to care about them. They are of all ages and nationalities and are facing huge difficulties. We really need businesses and individuals to step forward and help. This is a chance to do something good for Paphos,” she said.
The families are spread out through Paphos and the surrounding villages and are overjoyed that help is again available, and they haven’t been forgotten, as they had been left to struggle on alone, she said.
Recently the charity handed out food parcels to the 120 families, mostly Cypriots, Romanians, Bulgarians and Syrians, registered on their list, and the package consisted of chicken, vegetables and staples such as pasta and baby milk. It cost around €500 to do so, which all came from donations, she said.
“One family had nothing at all. The grandmother was making bread and that was all her daughter and her grandchildren would have to eat. Some of these people are too proud to ask for help.”
Paphos municipality’s welfare department stopped giving food to families directly around three years ago, this action is now carried out by the volunteer’s association, a municipality spokesman said, but added that it is still supported by the municipality.
The new charity has opened its doors at the old ‘house’ of Solidarity in central Paphos, and rent has been paid only up to the end of August.
Already, a couple of local businesses- a cake shop and a bakery- have offered regular support and Patsalou said that she is approaching businesses all of the time.
The charity also has an account number at Papantoniou Supermarkets that people may add their shopping points too, which in turn will be used to purchase food and other necessary items for the needy families.
“My love of God and humanity is pushing me to do this, we have to care about each other and help when it’s needed,” she said.
For further information and to help: (m) 99 220152
Facebook: Αγιος Γεωργιος Τροπαιοφορος
Ministry of health sponsors treatment of Paphos teenage road accident victim
By Bejay Browne
The ministry of health has stepped in to cover the costs of travel to Germany and rehabilitation and recovery of a Paphos teenager that was seriously injured in a road traffic accident in March.
The President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades personally called the family of 18-year-old Charalambos Leantzis from Geroskipou in Paphos to convey the news. The state has also covered the costs of his parents to accompany him.
The teenager is currently at a specialist neurological clinic in Germany and will undergo a number of tests, scans and examinations to decide the best course of action for his treatment, according to the head of the department of sponsored patients of the ministry of health.
“We can’t say how long the treatment will take or how much it will cost. All of the necessary procedures have been followed,” she told the Paphos Post.
The accident occurred a couple of months before the teenager was due to graduate from high school and he had remained at the intensive care unit at Nicosia General Hospital since March 27, with traumatic brain injuries that left him unable to move or communicate.
Family, friends and supporters rallied round to try to raise as much money as possible to ensure that he could travel to Germany and get the treatment he needs.
The president’s decision was welcomed by the family and a Facebook post reads: “On behalf of the family of Charalambos Leantzis we would like to express our emotion and thanks the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, who after personal telephone communication with the family assured that the government would cover all costs for the transition and recovery of Charalambos in Germany. We would like to express our thrill and thanks to the president for this act.”
The announcement added that the family would also like to warmly thank supports from all over the world who had helped, including everyone that organised various fund-raising events, as well as those that sent love and well wishes.
It added that all fund-raising events had been cancelled and that after the completion of his rehabilitation, the funds raised would be given exclusively to charitable organisations that aim to help those in need.
New renal unit approved for Paphos hospital
By Bejay Browne
Three million euros has been approved by the government to construct a much-needed renal unit at Paphos General Hospital.
The decision was confirmed to the Paphos Post by Minister of Health, Constantinos Ioannou. He said that price tag was based on an estimate of preliminary costs.
However, the minister was cautious, noting: “The process for the project is still on the very early stages and for now there is no estimate regarding the starting and/or completion date of the project,” he said.
It is also not yet clear when the funds will be released.
The move has been welcomed by patients who are currently receiving life-saving dialysis treatment at Paphos general hospital’s current renal unit, in dire conditions.
Last month, they vowed to take dynamic action against what they say are cramped and dangerous conditions and bureaucracy and red tape holding up plans for a new space.
The move has also been welcomed by the Paphos Kidney Association which has donated dialysis machines and all sorts of other necessary equipment to the unit with money from fundraising and donations. Last year, the charity raised over €73,000.
Graham Brown, the chairman of the Paphos kidney association noted that a lawyer’s letter, on behalf of the patients, had already been sent to the government to try and speed up the action.
Brown has hereditary polycystic kidney disease and receives regular dialysis treatment at the unit to keep him alive. His treatments take around four to five hours three times a week.
“There are seventy-five dialysis patients in Paphos, and a number on the waiting list and only 14 beds so you can imagine how cramped things are. We welcome this news and hope that the construction of the new, larger unit can go ahead as soon as possible,” he said.
Dr Lakis Yioukkas, who runs the renal unit, (he is currently on sick leave, recovering from a broken leg), also welcomed the news noting that although the number of patients needing lifesaving dialysis has spiralled over the last decade, the facility had remained the same size.
“Ten years ago, we had 30 patients, now its 75. The new unit will be larger, at least twice the size and we hope it will get underway next year,” he said.
According to the ministry of health, the new unit will be constructed behind the main hospital building, next to the church of Saint Nicholas. It will built as an independent building that will be connected to the main Paphos general hospital building.
Ioannou said that the project is an important one for dialysis patients in the area of Paphos, as they will be able to receive their treatment in new and modern facilities with 20 new dialysis units, which will be serving approximately 80 patients per week.
“With the new unit at Paphos General Hospital, the ministry of health aims to upgrade and improve the quality of the healthcare services to patients, thus providing a comprehensive medical care, and ensuring the equal access of all citizens to qualitative health services,” he said.
Pafilia given go ahead for Paphos Marina
By Bejay Browne
In a convoluted bid process which has seen the highly anticipated new marina in Paphos being passed from developer to developer, a final decision has given the project to Pafilia.
The bid for the marina, which is due to be built at Potima Bay in Kissonerga, was contested at various stages by the three main interested parties for more than a decade.
“The committee sent a letter to Pafilia informing them they have been awarded the project after appraising the submissions. I don’t think this can be challenged as it has all been done legally and according to the ways of the attorney-general,” community leader of Kissonerga George Stylianou told the Paphos Post.
However, despite the latest news he said he will ‘believe it when he sees it’.
“There has been so much toing and froing over the last years and as soon as the contract to go ahead is signed and we see something actually happening, we will believe it,” Stylianou said.
A new administrative marina management committee was recently appointed by the council of ministers to examine all documents and paperwork submitted as part of the tender process for the marina.
This followed a successful recourse brought by the Poseidon consortium – a joint venture in which Aristo Developers is a major stakeholder – to the supreme court of Cyprus after their bid was rejected. The court found that the committee responsible for overseeing the Paphos marina tender process was unlawful, making the previous decision void.
In 2017, the then marina committee saw Poseidon lose out to Pafilia developers after the body found that evidence supplied to secure financing for the multi-million-euro project was ‘not satisfactory’. Poseidon then successfully challenged this move.
However, the latest decision sees the marina project now back in the hands of Pafilia.
The marina has a chequered past, even before any construction gets underway. In 2008 the tender was initially awarded to the Cybarco-Pandora consortium, which includes the Leptos Group.
However, the other two bidding consortiums, Pafilia and Poseidon challenged the award at various stages. The project was then frozen after litigation began in 2008.
In December 2015, the supreme court voted in favour of Poseidon but the developer still had to submit proof of funds. Poseidon’s €215 million marina bid was rejected in April 2017 as the committee decided that the consortium was unable to meet the financial criteria. That meant runner up Pafilia, utilising a different design at a cost, could submit its paperwork.
But in December last year, recourse brought by the Poseidon consortium argued that the committee’s move to dismiss its tender and move on to ask Pafilia to commence negotiations was wrongful.
Pafilia’s project has the lowest price tag at around 240 million euros, said the community leader, and will provide room for around 1,000 vessels. There will be no hotel, as there would have been with the Aristo project, but 350 luxury villas will be built.
Stunning art in public spaces
By Bejay Browne
Two sculptures have become synonymous with Paphos, being photographed hundreds of thousands of times and shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Little Fisher Boy and Sol Alter, a homage to Aphrodite, have taken on a life of their own.
“I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide I would make a sculpture, I have been doing this for many years as well as painting. But because these pieces are public art my name has become known,” artist Yiota Ioannidou told the Paphos Post.
The sculptures were part of the town’s European Capital of Culture 2017 programme, “signs in time and space.”
Another of her sculptures is found in Argaka and honours rural mothers. It is a legacy of a local man, following the premature death of his wife in a car accident.
Yiota herself is modest, engaging and hugely likeable, but like most artists she has her insecurities. And she said she by agreeing to such public sculptures she took a chance with her career as she didn’t know what the outcome would be. “This is my way to communicate with people. Even if they don’t know who am, I or what I look like they know somebody did this. When I see people take pictures of my sculptures, this is my energy and my payment back.”
Although the two sculptures, that draw hundreds of visitors every day, have now been in place for two years, she still likes to see people looking at them.
Yiota is adamant that a sculpture can’t be put just anywhere, and that the place around it makes it important, especially in the case of public art. “I have to feel it. Public art is more important than the art we show in galleries and museums. With public art, you go close to the people and bring art to them, this is powerful.”
Born in Paphos, Yiota studied at the School of Fine Arts in Athens and returned to Paphos, which she loves.
“If you take inspiration from your roots it can’t be otherwise. You can see European art for example, but you are a Mediterranean person that lives in Cyprus, with the mentality of a Cypriot and the connections. This is where you have to start to search for yourself in your art.”
Yiota’s motivation is not money, but her legacy. Everyone wants to leave something, this is very important and maybe selfish, she said. “Do you want a small place in the history of art, or do you want to just sell art. I want the former,” she said.
The artist takes inspiration from everything around her and observes the smallest of details that may pass the rest of us by.
“Art is my oxygen, it’s my life. I can’t live without art. To find a solution for small problems in the studio every day. This is my therapy. It is classic for artists, it is normal.”
Life begins at 90 wins major award at Cyprus International Film Festival
By Staff Reporter
‘Life Begins at 90’ which was produced and filmed in Cyprus, premiered at the 13th Cyprus International Film Festival and scooped the award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature Film at the awards ceremony held at Palia Ilektriki in Paphos in July.
The 45-minute documentary stars Ray Woolley, 94, a world-record breaking scuba diver originally from Port Sunlight in the UK, who now lives in Limassol, Cyprus.
The film will now compete at International film festivals in Croatia and Greece in August and the director and the film have been invited to Bulgaria in 2019 to participate at the 18th International Red Cross Film Festival.
Created by Cyprus based independent production company, In Focus Films, the documentary highlights Ray’s passion for diving and healthy approach to ageing.
Director of ‘Life Begins at 90’, Bejay Browne, said she was thrilled with the award.
“Ray is a unique person and it was a joy to make this film. We are a small crew and have become close to Ray who inspires us all. We hope that audiences will enjoy it.”
Ray, who will celebrate his 95th Birthday on August 28th said all of the attention being generated by the film is ‘rather lovely at his age.’
“I’m happy and really enjoying this experience. I didn’t expect all of this attention at my age and its rather nice, as is this award. Everyone is so nice to me and I’m surprised at how much I like the attention.”
Ray gained global attention when he spent his 94th birthday on August 28, 2017, diving to the sunken wreck of the Zenobia ferry in Larnaca. It saw him claim a Guinness World Record as the world’s oldest scuba diver.
He is also a World War II veteran who served in the Royal Navy and ‘SBS Special Force 281’ in the Dodecanese. After the war, he trained as radio engineer and whilst working for the British foreign office was posted to Cyprus in 1964.
He is determined to hold onto his Guinness World Record and will again dive to the Zenobia wreck later this year, which will be filmed by In Focus Films.
High rise buildings not needed in Paphos district
By Bejay Browne
After it was revealed that Paphos municipality has received ten applications for high-rise buildings, a 500-strong group Movement to Save Paphos says there is no need for such construction in the district and an expert body should be formed to offer proper advice before it is too late.
According to Antonis Trakkides, a Geroskipou councillor and member of Movement to Save Paphos, high-rise buildings are not the way forward for Paphos.
“We can see how so many people have reacted in Limassol, and now this ‘new fruit’ has spread to Paphos,” he told the Paphos Post. “There are already three approved in Geroskipou, and 10 applications in Paphos town and day by day they are increasing.”
Recently, Paphos municipality announced – for reasons of transparency – that it has received ten applications for the construction of high-rise buildings of between eight and 20 floors in areas such as Kato Paphos and Anavargos.
Mayor of Paphos Phedonas Phedonos spoke of the pros and cons of such constructions, saying they could become a landmark for a city and yield multiple benefits but also negatively impact the environment and obstruct views and visibility.
“We are so quick to start something new and it’s only afterwards, when it’s too late that we realise what we have done was not the best,” Trakkides said.
“It will be similar to Spain, tall buildings and empty beaches.”
He said that he is particularly concerned about Geroskipou, as it has obvious attractions for investors with its swathes of unspoilt, potential building land by the sea.
“We don’t want huge skyscrapers along the coast. The entire council, apart from me, voted in favour of these buildings.”
He was referring to the three licences for tall buildings approved by the council.
The first licence is for more than one building and covers Eden city, the controversial €3.4 billion planned development by Hungarian investor Sandor Kenyeres.
The company was granted a town planning permit to proceed with the construction of the five-star, 221 room Peninsula Hotel Resort and two housing blocks of 12 storeys and 122 apartments on church-owned land.
The other two licences granted are for further high-rises in Geroskipou, one for a 12-storey building, the other for 10 floors.
Mayor of Geroskipou Michalis Pavlides said that although he was among those who voted in favour of the licences, he said he believed they were enough for the area.
Like Trakkides, he said he was concerned about long-term planning and favours bringing in specialist consultants from abroad to carry out the necessary studies and examinations and make recommendations.
Proper town planning guidelines are needed, he said, as are new laws.
“We don’t have any such people here and we need experts,” he said.
Paphos holiday homes urgently needed for Military wounded
By Bejay Browne
A non-profit organisation offering donated holiday homes to injured or traumatised military personnel is short of properties this year, due to the increase in tourists holidaying in Paphos.
The Military and Retired Cyprus Holidays for Heroes (March) is in desperate need of properties this year, in particular a three-bedroom villa with a pool and a suitable three-bedroom property for a wheelchair user, said Alan Wilson, a March representative.
“We urgently need a villa for Martyn Compton and his family. He has severe burns and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and will come to Cyprus on August 18 for two weeks. Because of the influx of tourists, the suitable properties that are usually donated to us have all been rented out,” he said.
Compton, who suffered 75 per cent third-degree burns all over his body while serving in Afghanistan, has visited Paphos before and served in the Household Cavalry for 14 years.
In 2006, on his first tour of Afghanistan, his armoured vehicle was blown up by the Taliban, killing three of the crew. As the only remaining crew member, Compton was shot at with rocket propelled grenades which blew up the engine block and engulfed him in flames.
He managed to crawl out, whilst on fire and was shot twice. He was in a coma for three months and has since undergone more than 500 hours of operations and years of rehabilitation.
Compton has since joined ‘Team Brit’ a motor racing team of disabled drivers with an aim of competing in Le Mans by 2020.
“He needs these breaks, as does his family and it means so much to be able to help them and others like him. They can come with their families and relax in the sunshine, we would be really grateful for any properties we can use,” he said.
March operate holidays for injured or traumatised military serving or non-serving personnel with all types of injuries including: tetraplegics, paraplegics, the blind, burns’ victims and amputees, and also those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Homeowners donate their properties for free for one or two weeks. The non-profit organisation pays for it to be cleaned, and has a welcome package placed at the property.
All used items are laundered and put back in place, and the house is thoroughly cleaned once the individual or family leaves.
Wilson said they are also desperate for a suitable property that is equipped for a disabled person and large enough to also house his family, at the end of August for two weeks. The personnel is an ex-major who was injured in an explosion in Afghanistan and lost the use of his legs, he said.
“He is wheelchair bound and has no movement below the waist. We need a property so that along with his family, he can have a well-deserved break.”
If you can donate a property: Tel: 00357 99850355
www.march-cy.org
administrator@march-cy.org
