The Citizens of Kythera reacted last year to the harsh reality that reached our island, with the refugees and the shipwrecked people, showing sensitivity, humanism and conscience. Both the groups that spontaneously organized themselves and managed the crisis, but also the individuals who selflessly offered, confirmed the character of the people of Kythera, which we all knew. Where the official state hides or is unable to hide or hides because it is weak, the Tsirigians exist through their actions and deeds.

On the occasion of those bad times, and realizing in the harshest way the need to create the basic infrastructure that will face any similar crisis in the future, we continued to exist as citizen groups, moving towards the required self-organization.

From the first days when life returned to normal, we organized ourselves to preserve the volume of food and clothing donations that had been given to us by a multitude of residents, visitors and friends with items that arrived from all over.

We organized ourselves into groups, and managed the food and water,
we sorted the clothes for storage accordingly, sent to special laundries to clean and sterilize blankets and other items.

We have tried to have a warehouse ready for any humanitarian crisis, and never again in Kythera the inability to offer a bottle of water to a thirsty person because of bureaucratic incompetence of the official state. There was a great need for all this to be collected, stored, and ready for use in a time of need.

For this purpose we collected money from friends in Greece and abroad. The activation of foreign residents of the island was very important, who raised the necessary money from people who have not come to the island until now. But they got to know Kythera through the action and humanity of its inhabitants.

All of us who have been participating in this joint action all this time, with awareness and knowledge, want to say a big thank you:

To Dorothea and Maxie for raising this large amount of money. The box with the first essentials to deal with any humanitarian crisis is in place, and in a few days, thanks to volunteer work already being done, all the supplies will be neat and ready, thanks to the planning of the way by the island's engineers.

The Orange Association and the Karava Patrician School for the temporary availability of storage space.

We thank the Municipality of Kythera and especially the Deputy Mayor Mr. Georgios Kominos for their valuable help in storing the clothes and essentials.

Many thanks to the professionals of our island who willingly provided free materials and machinery for the whole project. Thanks to Elias Tzanne, Stathis-Gounaridis, Andreas Travasaros - Liapantreas, Kostas and Takis Kasimatis-Stamatoulas, the blacksmith Manolis Souris.

Many have acted in every way to achieve the above. Once again, Kytherians have not been idle or complacent.

We are all proud of what we have achieved.
A big, big, big thank you from all of us, all of you.