By Sofia Kannas
THIEVES stole a metal cage full of aluminium cans from Polemidhia Primary school over the weekend, ruining the school’s recent Cans For Kids initiative.
The school was one of several participating in the Cans For Kids project, which collects and recycles aluminium cans to raise money for the treatment of sick children.
Police yesterday confirmed that the cage, worth £200, was stolen from the school, along with a video and some items from the canteen.
The School’s Environmental Committee Co-ordinator told the Cyprus Mail the theft of the cage had particularly upset both pupils and staff alike.
“We realised the cage had gone on Monday morning. We are very disappointed. The children were really beginning to get involved and now all the hard work is undone.
“We reported the theft to the police though it’s not the monetary value of the cage that has upset us but what it was worth in terms of helping sick children.”
Asked why thieves may have taken the cage, he said the cage would maybe be emptied and used to keep a dog or other animal.
The theft is not the first at the Polemidhia Primary– during the summer thieves took around £4,000-worth of computer equipment from the school, including 6 PCs.
“The issue of security is now a concern for the school. One of our aims is to ask the police and the Education Ministry to put us on the list of ‘high risk’ schools. Maybe we can have some security lights or cameras installed. The problem is that the school is rather isolated. There are no houses around.”
The school will try and carry on the initiative though.
“We will attempt to carry on. Perhaps we can build a cage with our own funds.”
Cans for Kids Committee member Rosie Ogden yesterday expressed her disappointment at the theft of the cage.
“We are really very upset that people would take a cage full of cans, which was for such a good cause.
“The project has been going on for 13 years now and we have helped contribute towards the paediatric intensive care unit at Nicosia’s Makarios Hospital. We are also committed to funding equipment worth over £50,000 for the ward next door. So we are after every can we can get. But incidents like this set us back of course.”
Ogden added that the Polemidhia collection bank had been important in the effort to make Can For Kids an island-wide project.
“We have collection banks in all the major hospitals, in Nicosia, Larnaca, Paralimni, Limassol and Paphos. But to keep raising money we need a Pancyprian collection of aluminium cans.
Asked if she had a message for whoever took the Polemidhia can bank, she said she hoped the thieves would return the cage.
“I appeal to the burglars to take the cage back in the middle of the night.”
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.
