Elderly Greek Australian Donates Thousands to Hospital in Greece

An elderly Greek Australian woman has donated tens of thousands of euros to the hospital in Argostoli, Kefalonia, the place where she was born ninety-three years ago.

Rubina Liosatou, who left Kefalonia for Australia sixty-five years ago, never forgot her hometown where she donated a digital mammogram machine and an ambulance.

According to public television ERT, Liosatou said she always liked to give to others and had also worked at the Argostoli hospital as a volunteer.

“She offered a piece of herself so that we could acquire this mammogram machine, which is important for the health of all women,” said Dimitris Martinis, an Argostoli Hospital administrator.

“She also donated an ambulance to the hospital, which can be used to discharge patients, so that that the National Emergency Center (EKAB) is not occupied with discharges,” he said.

Her kindness and helping hand spread to not only her old home but also the place where her husband was born.

Since last year, she has also helped renovate the Hospital of Pyrgos, donating beds for short-term hospitalizations, which are electrically powered to better treat patients in the emergency department, and a modern X-ray machine for the radiology department, according to director of the 6th Health Department Yannis Karvelis.

“The look of the hospital changed. I did this in memory of my husband. We love our homeland, we love it very much. I wanted very much to do something for my country of Greece,” explained Liosatou.

Philanthropic gestures by elderly Greeks

Other Greek expatriates seem to have been inspired by her actions, as others have shared an interest in contributing to their old hometowns.

Recently, it emerged that Greek millionaire Steven Zonas, who died frugally in Cincinnati, US in 1980, left behind a fortune for the sick and underprivileged of his native village in central Greece.

The village of Mexiates in Phthiotis has benefited from his estate and was left with nearly $1.6 million in stocks when he died at age eighty-seven. Dividends and interest put his estate at more than two million dollars.

In November 2023, an elderly Greek couple in the northeastern town of Didymoteicho donated more than $100,000 to the local hospital in the most recent philanthropic gesture in the country.

Moreover, in November 2023, an 83-year-old Greek woman offered her life savings to buy her town an ambulance after having been disappointed by delayed responses over the years whenever her late husband or herself had needed to be admitted to the hospital.

Athena Papachristou, who is a retiree farmer, donated the new ambulance to the local branch of the Greek National Centre for Emergency Response in Missolonghiin western Greece.This was under the condition that it would only be used to serve the needs of the town’s hospital.