Kathy Kostoglou and her husband Con have lived in Echuca for more than 23 years.
Owning and operating a number of pharmacies, they provide a crucial service to their community, made ever more evident by the recent COVID crisis.
So, when the Central Victorian floods began to wreak havoc on the town’s infrastructure and resident’s homes, it was only logical that the Kostoglou family step in to lend a helping hand.
“Almost everything’s had to close, aside from a few of the bakeries and the hospital it’s all shuttered down.”
“We’re scared, we’re sitting on the edge of our seats… at this stage it’s a waiting game, we’re sitting on the peak today, the wall they built is working… it hasn’t broken,” she says.
Aside from the essential service of providing a steady supply of medicines to locals throughout the disaster, Kathy’s incorporated a little ‘mageirefta’ (home-cooked meals) into her relief efforts.
Trays upon trays of ‘pastitsio’ have left the family home’s oven bound for those in need, a heartwarming meal for both body and soul in truly trying times.
“I’m not counting, right now, I’m in Bendigo looking for minced meat because we just don’t have resources in town,” she told Neos Kosmos when asked just how many she’d made.
As in so many emergencies, food scarcity becomes a real threat when our modern conveniences are interrupted by the forces of nature.
The Murray river at Echuca has broken its 1993 record flood level, with the waters rising to more than 94.77 metres above sea-level.
And despite the order to evacuate being given, many townspeople chose to stay behind, watching over their homes and one another.
“We’re all a big family here, I see Echuca like we see our ancestral villages back in Greece, it’s our horio.”
Residents are banding together, assembling sandbag levees around homes and businesses. Images are emerging of businesses barricaded by ad-hoc assemblies of tarpaulins and packaged garden soil.
Kathy had just driven past the town of Rochester when we spoke on the phone, she described the scene in one word. “Traumatic.”
“I have customers who’ve lost their homes, they’ve lost their shops… they’re lost it all,” she says with emotion plain in her voice.
“And our staff at the pharmacies, they’re on the front line of this, they’re seeing the devastation on the faces of the people coming through those doors.”
She says Echuca has a small but ‘dynamic’ Greek community. “We’ve got Nick and Maria with their Restaurant Opa, Maria and Chris who own the KFC. Thanasi’s been feeding us fish and chips forever.”
And Kathy’s passing on an appeal to the broader Greek community. “We need help. Pumps to clear water, generators to keep the lights on. People have been left with nothing, without blankets or even socks,” she stresses.
Philanthropy isn’t just a Greek word, it’s a universal ideal… and what the townsfolk of Echuca need right now, is the love of people.