Volunteers honoured, but association warns of bogus charities

By Rita Kyriakides

VOLUNTEERS have raised over £3.5 million for charity in Cyprus so far this year.

Today is International Volunteer’s Day, and Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas took the opportunity to praise Cypriot volunteers for their hard work in raising money in over 300 programmes and services for charities.

” We stand in awe of the task, in which thousands of Cypriot volunteers involved in committees and societies undertake to raise money for the easing of human pain,”Moushiouttas said yesterday.

However, the President of the Pancyprian Welfare Council (PSE), Stavros Olympios, is warning the public against people collecting money for false charities.

He feels amendments need to be made to the current law to protect innocent people from becoming victims of such con artists.

” The PSE is asking the government for proper support and to help the Committee make decisions regarding the welfare of the public. We are also asking for monitoring of charity lotteries and collections,”Olympios said.

Olympios warned there were people going from house to house selling books and other products and claiming the profits would be going towards often bogus charities, thus making it difficult for real charities to raise funds.

He said specific licences were issued for collections and the receipts given out should be stamped in order to prove their authenticity.

He called on the public to check if the person collecting the money was carrying a copy of their fund-raising licence.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.