My name is Marios Polymniou. I was born in Cyprus, but I’ve also had the opportunity to live and study abroad, and to return with different ideas and ideals about how we should live and how things should operate. It took some time, but through my various job roles, I came to the point where I understood that I needed to do something for the island.
This started with an initiative with a friend — I call him my brother because he’s my brother in many aspects — Yiannis Pepetsios. We started Save Your Hood Cyprus during the COVID pandemic, organising many volunteer clean-ups for the island. We understood that somebody had to do something. My journey started from there. Then I moved to City Friends Club as the project manager. We were doing the same thing, among other things, but in a more organised way to have a bigger impact.
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Later, after City Friends Club, I co-founded my own company with my partner called ECOmbare. We focused on creating events that address different environmental subjects like tree plantings, assisting fire-affected villages, enhancing pollinators’ population, and educational workshops. Experiences that bring people together to have a more hands-on approach and understand that this is the same land, the same sky, the same oxygen we share, and we can do better.
Before the fire, I felt we owed it to ourselves to live in a safe space, in a clean environment, and to be together in this, because we share the same things.
Nothing is separating us. We share the same air, the same ground, the same sun. When you grow up here, you understand that the land is not just something you live on — it gives to you, and you have to give back.
Home is not necessarily where you were born. Home is where you form bonds with your family, with your friends, with your colleagues. You create a bond with the nature that is providing for you, whether it is fruit, vegetables, oxygen, or shelter. Home is where you feel safe. Home is where you feel yourself.
A Birthday Interrupted
On the day of the fire, July 23, I was in Latchi. I had gone for a small holiday to celebrate my birthday. It was a chance to rest, relax, and decompress from the whole year’s packed schedule. I went on Facebook to reply to the birthday wishes from friends, and my eye caught a piece of news saying there was a fire in Limassol. My first thought was, Oh my God, again! We’ve had so many of these fires. Even back in March, there were smaller ones that were handled quickly and didn’t even make the news. So at first, I didn’t think much of it.
I was actively monitoring the news during the day and saw the developments. By the evening, I saw that people were being asked to evacuate. I then spoke with my older brother (we live in close-by areas) to get a better sense of what was going on, and he informed me that the fire had reached two kilometres away from our homes. My next thought went to my cats that live outside. My brother was taking care of them for me. The next thought was a frightening one. If the fire started in the nearby villages and had already reached down near Ypsonas, it meant serious destruction was happening, and I had to act.
I packed my things. I wasn’t supposed to check out, but my conscience wouldn’t let me stay and see what would happen. I reached Limassol in just under an hour. My brother and I went to check the fire. It was still burning strongly in our area. I went home, packed the car full of clothes, shoes, whatever I could think of, put the cats inside, put the AC on, gave them food and water, kept them safe inside so I could check again and be ready to evacuate.
That night, I kept driving back and forth between my house and the fire site until 5 a.m., just to see how the situation was developing and decide what to do next. It seemed to be somewhat under control, but I stayed on high alert. When I finally went home, I took a shower, but I couldn’t sleep. I just kept turning things over in my head, unsure of my next move.
Not Who We Are
The next morning, July 24, I got up, took the car, and went back to the area where the fire was burning. It wasn’t moving towards our houses anymore, but it was still burning. We had helicopters overhead trying to stop it from spreading further, as it was now heading towards the Ypsonas Industrial Zone.
I felt I had to help somehow. I went to the local kiosk (huge thank you to the owners, Polis and Andreas), and they let me take as much water as I needed. I loaded the car and went out into the fields to take it to the firemen. If they were out there fighting the fire for so many hours in that heat, I didn’t know if they even had water for themselves.
I then headed to the second location to take the water. At some point, I found myself walking alone to see where the fire was burning. When I saw the blackened trees, the scorched earth, the wildlife gone from the fields, I felt such a big wrath inside me. This land gives us so much, and we were watching it disappear. I made a video because I wanted people to see it for themselves. To understand that this is not who we are. We can, and we must, do much better. We all deserve better.
Creating Connection
Many friends, locals, expats, and friends from abroad were asking me how they could help. I understood I needed to create a place to exchange information, to know who needs help and who can offer help. That’s where the idea of creating a Telegram group, Westandtogether_cy came.
I asked a couple of friends (a big thank you to Evgeniya Shlykova) to be my eyes and ears in the group because during this time, I would be mostly out in the field. We prepared the text, created the group, and reached out to accounts with big reach like Instamam Cyprus, Russian Women’s Club, Mix FM Radio, and Elizabeth Friedrich, among others. They shared it immediately, and people started joining. Evgeniya had the idea to use the hashtags #offerhelp and #needhelp so we could group the requests. In a matter of hours, the group grew, and offers and requests started flowing in.
Volunteers took it upon themselves to act as admins, providing and relaying information, connecting people. I have eternal gratitude to them because without them, the group might not have been so efficient, and people would not have received the help they needed.
At Themistoklio, another group of amazing volunteers took up the responsibility of coordinating the gathering of supplies and essentials to be sorted and distributed to all those in need. Upon informing people through all the channels we had at our disposal, volunteers came with their cars, loaded them, and sent them where needed.
Requests for medical supplies, cleaning products, and other supplies were sent out, and in half an hour, volunteers were bringing them in. But then they didn’t just leave. They stayed to help further. Expats and locals worked side by side. People didn’t care about politics or ethnicities, or religions in these moments. In the face of adversity, we only have each other to rely on. This disaster was a common disaster. Not just for locals, but for everyone living on this island.
A Vision of a Future
Afterwards, I had many people asking me to engage in a more active political role. What I believe is that the future we have as an island, as a group, as a community, lies in the people. We all want to feel safe, equal, healthy, and have access to equal opportunities. And to achieve that, we need to realise that in every decision we take in life, whether it’s a small daily choice or a big one, yes, we should care for ourselves, love ourselves, respect ourselves. However, when it affects all of us, we need to keep our minds open and understand that the decisions we make must benefit everyone. If I make a choice that benefits only me and my family today, I might be creating the conditions for a future where disasters like this will not care who was privileged and who was not. There will come a time when we will all feel it.
Before we reach the point of regretting the decisions we took, we have to at least make them with the common good in mind. Calculated choices that will help us all live harmoniously.
If huge companies like the ones that called me up, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for all their support and the resources they offered and people alike, as one body, one organism showed that in moments of adversity we can support each other, then in moments of calmness and stability, we should be able to enhance this joint space of living harmoniously. And we will create this space. We owe it to our past, present, and future generations.
From us, for us.
