17 November 2020

Press Release

The Home for Cooperation receives grant support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden

The Home for Cooperation announced receiving a grant of 98,000€ by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden with an online press conference that took place on November 17, with the attendance of the Ambassador of Sweden in Cyprus, Mr. Hagelberg. The grant aims to support the recovery and sustainability of the Home for Cooperation from the implications of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

The Ambassador of Sweden, Mr. Hagelberg, in his speech, emphasized their belief that “bi-communal contacts are particularly important for confidence building on this island and for contributing to a sustainable peace process” and added: “Now more than ever we need to contribute to a positive climate for bi-communal contacts. The Home for Cooperation has a vital and unique role in upholding and facilitating contacts across the island, as well as in facilitating the efforts of civil society for peacebuilding. This capability needs to be supported, sustained and secured.” 

The Home for Cooperation Director, Lefki Lambrou thanked the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Sweden in Cyprus in her statement, “for supporting the Home for Cooperation through this grant” and emphasized that “the Home for Cooperation is determined to act as a bridge-builder between separated communities, memories and visions; where dialogue, cooperation and community building are in practice”.

For the first time since 2003, crossings between the two communities were closed gradually, by political decisions taken by the authorities in the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. As an organization located in the buffer zone and working across the communities with an intercommunal team, the work of the Home for Cooperation has been deeply affected from these measures as it was forced to remain closed for a significant amount of time.

During this period, the Home for Cooperation team moved their operations online to continue bringing people together under the new conditions. This grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, will enable the Home for Cooperation team to recover and continue working on innovative ways of bringing people together to cooperate with each other beyond constraints and dividing lines and contributing to the collective efforts of civil society in their engagement with peacebuilding and intercultural dialogue. 

Sweden has always been a committed supporter of peacebuilding efforts in Cyprus on various levels, from community efforts to political facilitation, best exemplified by the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process, operating under the auspices of the Embassy of Sweden in Cyprus, also located in the Home for Cooperation building and by its continuous support towards intercommunal projects and initiatives.