WHO WE ARE

   The Cans For Kids story began in 1990 when founder Rosie Charalambous’ son Christopher was diagnosed with cancer. She soon realised that the children’s wards at the Makarios hospital lacked the state-of-the-art equipment for dealing with childhood cancers that was available in other European hospitals.
When Christopher died, aged two, Rosie wondered what she could do to improve the facilities that would be available in the future. Noticing the huge amounts of rubbish littering the Cypriot countryside – among which were valuable aluminium cans – she formed an association with the aim of collecting the cans, selling them, and using the money raised to buy the much-needed machines that would upgrade the standard of care at Cyprus’ central paediatric hospital. She called it Cans For Kids.

The response has been amazing: over a quarter of a million euros worth of equipment has been donated to the Makarios Hospital, which treats seriously ill children from all over the island .As well as upgrading the equipment, and therefore the standard of care, in Cypriot children’s wards, Cans For Kids raises awareness of the benefits of recycling by visiting schools and organisations to give talks explaining the importance of recycling aluminium and also hosting school/group visits to the Cans For Kids recycling centre in Nicosia.
It’s worth noting that Cans For Kids is run entirely by volunteers, who freely give their time and energy to all aspects of the charity’s work, be it the sometimes messy sorting of cans prior to baling, giving presentations to schools or organising social events and fundraisers. The ethos of volunteerism is one of the pillars that underpins Cans For Kids’ success, and new volunteers are always welcome. Read More

Cans For Kids is now a registered charity, and it is clear that many people have been motivated to recycle their cans because they know that it will be helping the hospital and the standard of care for children in Cyprus.
Since its inception Cans For Kids has expanded from a small Nicosia-based project to an island-wide recycling scheme, with can banks all over Cyprus. Importantly, Cans For Kids makes sure to cover rural and outlying areas not covered by other recycling organisations.

You can locate your nearest Cans For Kids can bank here
By saving your cans for Cans For Kids, you not only help the environment, but you know that your efforts are giving something back to the community.