Eugene Eletheriadou Interview

What fulfills you most in your volunteer work?

My aim is to make people smile!

I meet people who go through a troubling phase in their lives. They come to the hospital for their health issues and I am here to remind them the happier side of life. Advising them and urging them to participate in our creative activities, I feel that they will never forget how joyful life is. We all need a helping hand and support, when we go through life adversities.

Participating in PAMEMMAZI activities, tell me about one of the most moving experiences.

It is very difficult to choose one!

• Yoga class: Five women, totally strangers, came to PAMEMMAZI space in the hospital. When the program finished all five, waiting for each other to get ready, went out of the room, talking and saying how wonderful time they had. I escorted to the elevator and what I kept in my mind, as the elevator’s door was closing, was the image of 5 dynamic women with smiling faces.
• One of the nurses, who is also a talented painter, after he found out about our PAMEMMAZI space in the hospital and the variety of the activities, he decided to become a Drawing and Painting volunteer. PAMEMMAZI inspires many people.
• After the “Cinema and Discussion” program finished, a caregiver said: “Before coming to this activity I was feeling sleepy and I had bad thoughts. I came here after my niece has insisted and now I am feeling awake, energetic and I am going to my mother to tell her all the new thing I have learned from our discussion. She would love to hear it. Thank you.

I have realized, that apart from the patients, caregivers need also a break. They can benefit from the PAMEMMAZI creative activities and offer a better support to their relatives.

What do you consider the most important contribution of PAMEMMAZI?

Engaging patients in creative activities during the endless hospital hours, is the fulfillment of the organization’s goal.

I feel that participants being transported to the more optimistic space of PAMEMMAZI, relax, become less stressed and get away from all the anxieties of the illness. 

Make a wish for the future of PAMEMMAZI

I wish PAMEMMAZI keeps its passion, its dynamism and its willingness to grow and to expand its activities to other hospitals too. Getting together with the participants, patients/caregivers, I strongly believe that PAMEMMAZI presence at the hospitals is a necessity and offers significant strength to all people in need. I wish PAMEMMAZI keeps its values, dedication, enthusiasm and consistency and gets stronger in orderto share and transmit its strength to others.