Maria is only 28 years old and she’s the coordinator of the social workers team of Faros Elpidas. She started this journey in 2016 and until this day she tries her best to help all the people who entered in the Faros Elpidas’ office.
What’s your motivation for helping these people?
“I love to help the people that are in need even if they are immigrants, children, refugees or any other vulnerable people. I have never imagined that I will work with refugees. In the beginning I wanted to work with the child protection. When I got the chance to work in this field, I really loved it.
Sometimes you don’t have any positive results and not all the things are going well, but I get my motivation when I see that people really have a better life after we help them.”
When did you know that you want to help people?
“I think after I finished school. In the beginning, I wanted to be a psychologist, but I wasn’t admitted to the university, so became a social worker. Then I understood that this was exactly the profession that makes me happy and that I have a lot of things to offer to this world.”
Why did you choose this organization and not another one?
“Two years ago I was working in a NGO in Germany. I decided to come back to my country and this was the first organization that I applied to. I didn’t know what will happen, I didn’t know what expectations I should have from this organization or what they could provide me, but I’m happy with my decision.”
Listen to the interview with Maria
How did your life change since you’re in Faros Elpidas?
“My approach to people didn’t change. It’s exactly the same since I’ve started. I’m more experienced for sure and I got promoted after some months. I became a supervisor for the social workers so it was a really big chance for me, but that’s all.”
What’s that one thing that a refugee or a homeless person told you and you still remember until this day?
“There was this family from Iraq… They had a disabled child. In the day they were leaving, after I managed to get the documents they needed, they told me “Maria, we will never forget what you did for our family. That gave me the motivation to continue helping these people.”
Article by Georgiana Grigoraş, podcast by Spyridoula Grammatikou
