First Lady’s student charity donated €4.5m since 2015

First Lady Andri Anastasiades on Wednesday expressed her gratitude to all contributors of the Independent Agency for Social Support she helped create in Cyprus in 2015.

The purpose of the Independent Agency for Social Support is to provide financial aid to students who are otherwise unable to continue their studies due to extraordinary social difficulties or circumstances that affect their families.

The First Lady is set to step down from her role as chairwoman of the agency once President Nicos Anastasiades’ term officially ends.

“In a few days we will pass on the baton of the agency and I feel proud of the work we have done together over the years,” the First Lady said.

“Its success speaks volumes of the great acts of solidarity and selfless support to our young people.”

She said that the reason behind the establishment of the agency was to ensure a future to struggling students during a time of global economic crisis.

“Our goal was to provide substantial support for their demanding efforts to obtain their degree, as my conviction is that education, as an inalienable right of every human being, is a decisive factor in the course of a young person’s life.”

The First Lady said that, since the agency’s creation in 2015, a total of nearly €4.5 million were collected and distributed among 3,223 students.

“Through the interaction with the students and their families during the evaluation of their applications, my colleagues have often become recipients of the great problems they were facing. The agency managed to find multiple solutions not just to their problems, but to a multitude of socio-economic issues in Cyprus.”

She then handed over the symbolic baton to the upcoming First Lady, Nikos Christodoulides’ wife Philippa Karsera.

“Knowing your love and your sensitivity for your fellow man, your concern for our young people, we have no doubt that the agency will only benefit from your presence, and I want you to know that we will always be by your side,” she said.