The Motivational Power of Boroume #12

The driving force of Boroume lies in its volunteers. Dynamic people, with a strong sense of responsibility and contribution to fellow human beings and deeply aware of their role in society.

Anna Liakou has graduated from a school of tourism professions but in recent years she has been working in the field of advertising and communication and as a character model. She decided to participate in the work of Boroume for the most obvious reasons: to provide help for the basic feeding of our fellow human beings.

She believes that in reality no one decides to become a volunteer. Either one likes to help and see people smiling without expecting anything in return or one does not need to feel this mental fullness. But if someone wants to become a volunteer, then there is no way s/he cannot find what suits her/him.

She thinks that talking about volunteering is easy; the difficult thing is to motivate people since their personal worries do not allow them the luxury of enjoying offering to others. She believes that we have all become self-centered and that the expression "will you take it with you?" has become more relevant than ever today. The reactions that Anna receives when she talks about volunteering are half "well done" and the other half "here your life hangs on a thread and you run around for others". Anna does not care about the latter. She chooses to live her life with a different rationale.

She finds it not easy not to throw away food. Not because there is any practical difficulty, but because society sees this as a sign of prosperity. We throw away so we have, we collect so we exist. We have not yet realized the practical necessity of food and that is why we throw away food. She believes that when we realize this there will be a different kind of food management and we will no longer talk about volunteering in waste prevention. Anna says that "there is food ... we have lost our humanity and that is why it ends up in tons in the garbage".

We could describe the team of Boroume with the words "love", "joy", "support". What impressed her from her participation in the actions of the program "Boroume at the Farmers’ Market" in Thessaloniki unfortunately is not pleasant. She found that there are many people who ask how they too could be supported with food through an aid platform. Our volunteers want to give them all a hug and find ways; they will always take some time to listen to their problem, to suggest a solution, if they know. Unfortunately there are many of these people and every time our volunteers wish to be able to help them and others and everyone!