We met in a café in Larnaca at 10:30 last Sunday morning. She had only slept a few hours.
She had gotten off work at midnight from the tavern where she works as a waitress and at 3:30 in the morning she woke up to work overtime at her main job as a street cleaner. In the afternoon, she explained, she would go to a stadium canteen to work.
The truth is that the contact with her was initially made because she dared to break an outdated stereotype, being the only woman working as a street cleaner in the Municipality of Larnaca, a remarkable fact by Cyprus standards.
Neither this, however, nor the congratulations she and the Municipality of Larnaca receive for the cleaning services in the sector she has taken over are the most remarkable in the history of Sylvia Miliotou, 42 years old, from occupied Famagusta and Larnaca.
All these are simply evidence of the course of willpower of a woman who reached the brink of destitution, but who fought and manages today, working three jobs, to provide as much as her family needs.
Sylvia told her story to Phileleftheros not to be pitied, nor because she needs some help, but to send a message to people who are facing great financial difficulties that they can make it.
