In a heartwarming act of generosity, 90-year-old Anastasia Gkesa Liveriadu, an expatriate from Melbourne, has donated a plot of land to the Greek municipality of Ptolemaida for the construction of a kindergarten.
Ms Liveriadu, who has lived in Australia for many years, has never forgotten her homeland Greece and decided to contribute to the future of the children in her birthplace.
In an interview on the Greek channel Alpha’s programme “Weekend with Manesis,” she explained her decision, recalling how she emigrated to Australia decades ago: “It wasn’t poverty that drove me to come to Australia. It was the circumstances. I was studying in Athens, worked in Athens, and arrived in Australia alone, with little English, and managed to study here in Melbourne and excel in my career.”
Ms Liveriadu worked as an educator in higher education and has one daughter.
The elderly expatriate was inspired by the words of John F. Kennedy and chose to donate the land in Ptolemaida.
“When I heard the president say, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,’ I decided to donate this piece of land for the benefit of the residents of my hometown,” she concluded in her interview.
Once completed, the kindergarten will bear her name as a mark of honour.
