strengthen love for the Greek language, but also to encourage the active participation of young people, so that they can stay close to their roots. In addition to the above actions, in countries where there is a strong Greek Community, an attempt has been made to set up complete educational programmes. More precisely, in cooperation with the Greek Government and our parishes, we have managed to establish schools and educational missions providing free books, educational material and professional help from qualified teachers. In fact, the Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports offers a training programme for expatriate teachers teaching Greek as a second/foreign language, so that they can be informed about modern approaches to teaching Greek as a second/foreign language, also covering aspects of Greek history and culture. The purpose of these schools is to provide a high level of education in order to develop Greek lan38 | National Strategy on Cyprus Diaspora guage learning and to cultivate the national, religious and cultural identity among the children of our compatriots. Evidently, due to the small size of Cyprus, these actions rely to a very large extent on the assistance of the Greek State for human resources and material, and for this we are grateful. At this point, we must acknowledge the significant role that the church plays in the effort to promote our culture and preserve the national identity of our Diaspora. The church has always been an exponent of this collective effort due to its reach, its structure and the solid relationship it has developed with Greek expatriates through time. Undertaking various actions, the church has contributed to the education and training of the expatriates, and to Greek language learning, while being a forum and a way of contact between expatriates. After all, where there is a church, there is community and participation of the people.
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