A shocking story recently reached my ears that I would like to share with you. In fact, when I learned about it, I wanted to see first-hand how a corporate initiative can have such an impact on the life of a family. I visited the family man who welcomed me with open arms, who told me the story. I quote it in its entirety:
«I will never forget what happened to us about a month ago. My wife was out of work and I was trying to keep the house standing with a few days' wages. The bills were piling up, and our old LPG stove – which had already been suffering for years – was blowing its tails... Stress overwhelmed us, because a family cannot live without its oven. It's not just a device. It is the food that must be put in the pot, the daily routine that must continue. Those who have children will understand...
I was ashamed to ask for help. It's not easy to admit that you need it. But somewhere there, between desperation and the insistence on offering the best I can to my children, I heard about an initiative by Kotsovolos that helped families like us, who were trying to get back on their feet.
Reluctantly, I turned to the Pancyprian Volunteering Coordinating Council. Not many days passed and the bell rang. It was the new – for us – kitchen. Functional, clean, ready to give us back the sense of normality. And the most touching of all? I didn't need to explain. The people who brought it to us didn't ask anything. They only smiled and wished "goodbye".
At that moment, my family didn't just get a device. We got hope back."
As I see from the experience I heard, the "Second Home" of Kotsovolos is not just a corporate social responsibility program. From personal experience I can assure you that it is an act of care, a gesture of solidarity and above all, an open invitation to everyone to become part of the change and offer a Better Life to our fellow human beings who need us.
This program, which started in Greece in 2017 and has already supported over 2,450 families, has now reached Cyprus. Already, from what I have learned, including the family I mentioned, 52 families in Cyprus have received basic necessities donated by Kotsovolos.
As part of the ESG program REACT – Together for a Better World, the "Second Home" invites all of us to give new life to devices we no longer need from wherever we are in Cyprus. The appliances we can donate are either a fridge/freezer, a kitchen, or a washing machine, as long as they are functional and up to 10 years old. Kotsovolos picks them up, repairs them, takes care of them and offers them, at no cost, to families in need – in collaboration with the Pancyprian Volunteering Coordinating Council. In fact, the program has a double significance because it is a program that strengthens the circular economy, as it gives a "second life" to devices and at the same time offers to society, helping vulnerable families. At the same time, for our good deed, the company rewards us by offering us a gift voucher worth 30€, which we can redeem for the next purchase of double the value.
Through such synergies between companies and NGOs, it is not only possible to offer material assistance to those in need, but also to cultivate more resilient societies with important messages of solidarity, social responsibility and volunteerism.
Change starts with us. Even the smallest act – like donating an old operating device – can bring a huge smile to a home that needs it.
Within just four years of presence, with physical stores in Nicosia, Limassol, Paphos, an outlet and kotsovolos.cy online store, the company could not feel truly present if it did not give back to the society that embraced it.
Because some, somewhere out there, are waiting for an act of love. A "Second Home". Let us be the beginning.
Visit the page below to learn more about the program and how you can donate the device you don't need to a family that really needs it: https://www.kotsovolos.cy/pages/second-home?lang=en.
