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Letter No. 001A No.001A/BM/xk Limassol, 30th January 2012.
Dear Friends,
I would like to express to all of you my sincerest wishes for happiness and good health this New Year. I would like to inform you of the following news concerning our Community:
A. Parliamentary Work/Meetings of the Representative On December 8th 2011 I had met the Minister of Education and Culture Mr. Giorgos Demosthenous.
1. The Minister showed great interest to hear from me information concerning the schools of Terra Santa College in Nicosia and St. Mary in Limassol.
2. We discussed the preparation of the new book on the history of the Latin Community that is planned to be published.
3. The Minister and his advisers informed me that there is now a lot of information on the Ministry’s website regarding the Latin Community as well as instructions for teachers that will help them with the content of their teaching material for students in Elementary schools.
4. Concerning the students of the Secondary education; the information and instructions to teachers are under preparation.
5. We had again mentioned that the Government must proceed to include the yearly increases of the running costs of our two schools in the subsidies granted to the Latin students.
6. We had informed the Minister about the teaching of the Greek language to foreign workers at the Centre of St. Joseph The Itinerant which is funded by a Government subsidy. It seems that the Minster was satisfied with the explanations we gave him because on the 14th of December he made an unexpected and unofficial visit to Terra Santa College.
7. On the 14th December I had organized a meeting between three higher officials of the Ministry of Health and the Rev. Fathers Carlos and Jim of Paphos and their advisers concerning the final architectural designs of The Hospice that will be submitted for approval at the above Ministry.
B. Community Affairs 1. The newspaper "Philieleftheros" has published the 04th volume of the "History of Republic of Cyprus". Chapter 21 is titles "The Latins of Cyprus" and it accounts the presence of the Latins here. Historical information has been obtained from myself, our history researcher Mr Sylvain Beraud and others.
2. On the 21st December the Progressive Society of Larnaca gave its annual Christmas concert at our church of Larnaca with the cooperation of the Latin Community under the auspices of myself, as the Representative of the Community. There were additional Christmas concerts at our churches in other towns.
3. There were the annual Christmas Bazaars at the towns of Nicosia Centre of St. Joseph The Itinerant collection about €6000, at Larnaca Church Christmas Bazaar a collection of €2500 and at Limassol St. Francis Shelter a collection of €3500 was raised.
The proceeds of the bazaars will be given to people in need irrespective of their religion and nationality.
4. The Sisters of St. Joseph The Itinerant of Larnaca have created the Association of St. Joseph Protector of the Needy to assist people in difficult economic situations, thus giving an important contribution from the Latin Community to our society.
Best Regards |
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