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Dear Mayor, Sofoklis Sofokleous
Dear Members of Parliament,
Dear residents and visitors of beautiful Lefkara,
It is an honour to represent today the President of the Republic Mr. Nikos Christodoulides at the 42nd Lefkara Art and Culture Festival. A festival which attracts visitors from all over Cyprus and tourists to your beautiful, picturesque village, with its traditional architecture, its narrow and winding streets and its unique houses with tiled roofs. The village that is world famous for its traditional embroidered lace handicrafts and silver wirework, the art of which has been practiced in Lefkara since Venetian times.
It is with real pleasure that I join you in the Festival, which has established itself as a celebration, as an important summer cultural event of inspiration and creativity, but also of escape and joy.
I convey to you the warm greetings of the President of the Republic, Mr. Nikos Christodoulides. It is through these events that we come closer to our roots, that we get to know our traditions, our place, but also that we are given the opportunity to develop culture, arts and quality activity.
Congratulations are due to you, dear Mayor, members of the municipal council and organizers.
The strengthening of mountainous areas and the countryside is one of the important policies of the Government. All the relevant Ministries and Deputy Ministries have targeted policies with specific implementation schedules, the progress of which we regularly present before the Council of Ministers.
Just recently a meeting has been held in the presence of the Commissioner for Mountain Areas during which the Government's policies were reviewed and the challenges and issues facing the mountain areas were raised by the Commissioner.
The assurance is that the Government will continue to work towards strengthening both our mountain areas and the countryside.
As the State Ministry of Social Welfare, we have formulated a comprehensive social policy that meets needs nationwide, serving families, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities through its departments and services, namely the Social Welfare Services, the Department of Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities and the Welfare Benefit Administration Service.
Through the State Aid Schemes and through the Recovery and Resilience Plan, we fund and support Local Government Authorities, as well as Non-Governmental Organisations, for the development and operation of day care centres with opening hours that serve working parents, childcare centres that operate in the evening hours, shelters for the elderly and day centres for the elderly, as well as services and programmes for people with disabilities. This social policy is designed after thorough research and mapping of the actual needs arising in each region.
At the same time, we are further developing our policies in relation to the support of the family and the elderly, through the expansion of the beneficiaries of the Tuition and Feeding Subsidy Scheme for Children up to 4.5 years of age, and through the National Strategy for the Elderly, which is in the final stage of completion by the Ministry of State and will soon be submitted to the Council of Ministers.
For the State Ministry of Social Welfare, local authorities are key partners and companions in the implementation of social policy. Particularly after the reform of local government, municipalities and communities may have an increased role in social policy issues. Our cooperation with Local Authorities is already close and we have already developed joint programmes that are beneficial to society as a whole, such as the Neighbourhood Social Worker Programme.
We are at the disposal of Local Authorities for further synergies, which will contribute to improving the daily life of citizens, but also to the quick and timely identification of challenges so that they can be effectively addressed.
Expressing again my pleasure for my presence today in beautiful Lefkara, my congratulations for the organization of the Festival and my emotion for the tremendous response of the people, I declare on behalf of the President of the Republic the opening of the 42nd Lefkara Festival of Art and Culture.
Good Success!
(AS/AF)
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