One step closer to its realization is the goal of the members of the Australian Hellenic Medical Char ity Inc., which was established to raise money for the purchase of medical equipment for the Halkidiki General Hospital. The organisation was created about a year ago, on the initiative of the businessman Konstantinos Barkoukis, and under the guidance of the Greek-born Chief Justice of South Australia, Christoforos Kourakis.

“After two years of hard work, we have managed to raise a total of $75,000 which will enable us to purchase the BK Flex Ultrasound machine that the hospital is in dire need of and we are very happy about this,” the organization’s treasurer, Despina Barkouki, told Neos Kosmos after the second charity event organized by the organization on Friday, May 4, in Adelaide.

“The event in which we had the honour to host the popular expat Athena X. Leventis and her husband Panos, was a huge success and we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts our friends of the organization, our sponsors and all our fellow citizens, Greeks and non-Greeks, for their support, trust and generosity in responding to our invitation,” said the initiator of the initiative Konstantinos Barkoukis, who comes from Halkidiki. After meetings he had with doctors at the local hospital during his summer holidays in Greece, he found that the shortages in the treatment and prevention units were so great that in some cases the diagnosis of a serious disease such as cancer was almost impossible.

“I thought that the only way to help so that neither the permanent residents of the area nor the young children nor the tourists who visit our country every year are in danger is to turn to our fellow citizens in Australia and create a charity organization that aims to collect money to be used for the purchase of medical equipment in hospitals in our country and now that our first attempt was successful, we do not stop here. Our next goal is a second Greek hospital, which could possibly be the Metropolitan Social Clinic of Elliniko in Athens or a hospital in Katerini, which seems to need our help,” says the entrepreneur.

Helping in this effort is the 32-year-old lawyer Lukasz Wyszynski, who, although he is not Greek, wanted to offer his legal services free of charge to repay, as he told Neos Kosmos, a moral debt to Greece, since, in September 1986, when he and his parents were forced to flee Poland for political reasons, they found refuge in Greece.

According to the Statutes of the organization, the delivery of the equipment must take place within the next 60 days, so the expatriate businessman along with another member of the Board of Directors of the organization, also businessman, Sotirios Philis, are going to go to Halkidiki in July to deliver the equipment.

“I would like to thank on behalf of the Board of Directors all those who have been with us, believed in our idea and supported our efforts. If we manage to save even one of our fellow human beings, that will be enough for us,” concludes Mr. Barcukis.