With Christmas fast approaching the Cyprus Red Cross is distributing this year approximately 3,500 packages which contain 30 different essential items such as sugar, oil, pulses, evaporated milk, canned meat, canned fish and toilet paper.

At the same time, as Cyprus Red Cross General Manager Takis Neophytou tells CNA every month about 1,675 bags with food provisions are offered to those in need.

It seems that more and more families are turning to the Red Cross for help and Neophytou is clear that the Red Cross will accept any type of help.

“We take whatever is brought to us and we distribute it depending on the needs at hand”, he says.

He adds that from the looks of it 2014 will be an even more difficult year. To that effect he gives the example of the Christmas packages. Last year there were 2,000 packages, he says, adding that at Easter the packages became 2,500, while this Christmas initially they numbered 3,100.

A few days ago, the Commissioner for Volunteering and Non-Governmental Organisations and the Cyprus Schools Parents Association notified the Red Cross that there are another 800 families which could use the help.

In an urgent bid volunteers at the Red Cross managed to compile approximately another 400 packages to be distributed before Christmas. The rest of the families will also receive their packages but after Christmas.

The Cyprus Red Cross was founded in 1950 as a Branch of the British Red Cross.

Following the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus and the accession of Cyprus to the Geneva Conventions, the Cyprus Red Cross was registered as a legal entity under Law 39 of 1967.

It is a humanitarian organization led by volunteers and guided by the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and its own Statutes, prevents and alleviates human suffering and supports individuals and communities prepare for, and respond to emergencies, in times of peace and war, without any discrimination as to race, gender, age, social, religion or politics.