Act of kindness by a Greek Australian goes a long way

A generous Greek Australian man is being applauded for his extraordinary act of kindness amid the economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, handing out $100 cash to each one of the hundreds of jobless workers waiting outside the Centrelink office in Melbourne's Box Hill.

After seeing thousands of people queuing up at Centrelink locations across Melbourne, 62-year-old cafe owner Peter Darmos rushed to his local bank and withdrew $10,000 in $100 notes.

He then headed straight to the Centrelink queue in Box Hill and started handing out the cash.

“I came here as a six-year-old from a village in Greece and this country has been good to me. I was watching the queues at Centrelink, all those people lining up just so they could buy food for their families, and it made me so sick to my stomach. I couldn’t take it anymore, the businessman said.

“There were tears and disbelief. $100 is not a lot of money, but four or five bags of food meant a lot to these people,” he added.

The kind-hearted man has urged other wealthy Australians to donate cash to those waiting outside Centrelink.

"My heart just goes out to these people who are really suffering. The gratitude, the tears in peoples' eyes, it was unbelievable," he concluded.

It’s in moments like these, kindness really goes a long way.