The Motivational Power of Boroume #9

The driving force of Boroume is its volunteers. Among them are people who have experienced extremely difficult conditions in their lives, have fought and emerged victorious. Sensitive people, with great willpower, and determined to do positive things in their lives and give to others.

Costas is in the last phase of a detoxification program of KETHEA. He has been a Boroume volunteer for a year, in the program "Boroume at the Farmers’ Market" and, now, coordinator of a large group of volunteers.

The meaning of volunteering in his life has many aspects: it is about the satisfaction he gets by showing solidarity with people in real need, the interaction with young people who have the same goal as he does, the selflessness that raises his self-esteem and the belief that everything can change, as long as we really want it to. He believes that even if one person is helped, it means that the world is changing for the better. In Boroume he helps many people with something that for many of us is a given: a plate of food on their table.

When he talks to others about the fact that he is a Boroume volunteer he gets admiration and generates interest to learn more about the way it works and the purpose of Boroume. Many of his acquaintances have participated with him in actions of Boroume and have shared the same feelings.

He believes that the fact that we take food for granted on our table, the quantities we cook without consuming it, the mentality of shopping 5 and consuming 3, have permeated our culture and, without realizing it, have made us privileged and ignorant. It is not difficult not to throw away food, if we think that we just need to consume what we need.

The fact that in the farmers' market many fruits and vegetables, which the sellers would throw away because they are just ripe, are offered to us by the vendors, and our volunteers in turn deliver them to social welfare organizations that need them, is for Kostas a new mentality that has a sense of solidarity.

To describe his experience in Boroume he would use the words: Solidarity, Selflessness, Satisfaction. He is still impressed every time sellers and customers in the popular market ask him about his voluntary involvement with Boroume and always utter their last phrase "Well done, guys!"