On a hillside overlooking the crystal blue waters of Greece's Leros island, a small personnel in protecting gear are busy smoking beehives.
However these usually are not strange beekeepers -- a few of them are sufferers from the close by psychiatric hospital, collaborating in a two-decade venture combining remedy with skilled fulfilment.
The social cooperative in Leros, housed in a former barracks often called the Caserma property, is the primary of its form in Greece.
The cooperative "goals to socially and professionally combine individuals with psychosocial issues", venture supervisor and occupational therapist Andreas Georgiou mentioned. "By means of the programme [...] they purchase self-respect and shallowness."
On the fields of the property, sufferers take care of the bees and domesticate their high-quality weight loss plan -- lavender, oregano and different fragrant herbs.
"This can be a bee's paradise," Georgiou mentioned.
In Lepida, to the south of the port, the staff pack and label the honey, and dry the herbs in devoted rooms contained in the psychiatric hospital. The property produce is then bought in numerous areas on the island.
"I really like what I do right here, it is an actual aid for the soul," Artemis, a affected person in his 60s mentioned as he sealed honey jars. "We attempt to be as conventional and pure right here as doable."
The Leros cooperative employs 13 salaried employees, supervised by specialist beekeepers, along with a workforce of nurses and occupational therapists from the island's psychiatric hospital.
Whereas some sufferers reside within the asylum, a big quantity are allowed to reside in flats on the island for higher integration into society.
A handful of individuals have been in a position to make a full rehabilitation by way of the cooperative, Georgiou mentioned.
Post a Comment