Outside the school on Sikinos, one of Greece’s smallest inhabited islands, two massive trucks have braved an eight-hour sea voyage to bring residents much-needed medical expertise in the depths of winter.
The back of the first vehicle opens onto a dental surgery and a mammography booth.
Inside the second truck, obstetric gynaecologist Panagiotis Thomopoulos awaits his first patients among Sikinos’ fewer than 200 full-time inhabitants.
“We carry out all the routine gynaecological examinations and colposcopies or smear tests [for cervical cancer screening],” explained the doctor, who is employed at a hospital in the Greek capital, Athens.
Converted into medical examination units, the trucks are part of a campaign funded over the past decade by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, one of Greece’s most powerful philanthropic institutions, to bring free care to the inhabitants of remote islands and regions.
The initiative runs every weekend outside the summer months.