NICOSIA, Cyprus -- With Cyprus' economy falling apart, even those
behind prison bars are pulling together to help people in need.
Dozens
of central prison inmates donated around 9,000 euros ($11,649) in cash
to a volunteer clinic Saturday in order to help needy families receive
free medical attention amid the country's most severe economic crisis in
decades.
The inmates, many of them serving long sentences, raised
the cash from the 300 euros in pocket money they're allowed to keep for
once-weekly purchases at the prison canteen.
Lara
Ioannou, 25, whose husband has four years left on a 13-year
drug-related sentence, helped hand the money to Eleni Theocharous, a
Cypriot European parliament member and pediatric surgeon who also runs
the country's first volunteer clinic in the heart of the capital's
medieval center.
Ioannou said inmates thought that access to
medical attention is as equally important as food as needy families try
to weather the country's financial collapse.
Yiota Chrysanthou,
31, whose 27-year-old brother has around three years left on a 12-year
sentence also for a drug conviction, said inmates want this to be the
first of hopefully many such donations from them.
Theocharous said she was shocked by the unexpected display of charity by people that society often forgets.
"I
was deeply moved by the inmates' moral depth, even in their
circumstances," Theocharous said. "It just goes to prove that our
collective humanity shines through in times of such poverty and
hardship."
Theocharous said she would plead with President Nicos Anastasiades to pardon as many inmates as possible.
Metropolitan
Isaiah, a senior member of the Orthodox Christian Church, said: "This
demonstrates that love of our country and its people supersedes all
else."
Around 20 people, including four children, paid a visit
Saturday to the small clinic located across from a primary school, nurse
Despo Plyta said.
Theocharous said plans are under way in
cooperation with the Cyprus Church to build several more volunteer
clinics across the island.
Debt-ridden Cyprus faces a steeply
shrinking economy and spiking unemployment after seeing its
once-thriving banking sector decimated under a deal to receive 10
billion euros ($12.94 billion) in rescue money from its eurozone
partners and the International Monetary Fund.
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