Andrea Michaels’ story is unique. Her family was forced to leave Cyprus in 1974 due to the Turkish invasion.

Her parents finally arrived in Australia in 1976, with 11-month-old Andrea in their arms and nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

The 46-year-old mother of two, visited her homeland last week under her capacity as the Minister for Small and Family Business, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs as well as Minister for Arts for South Australia.

Ms Michaels met with the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides as part of the board of directors of the World Inter-Parliamentary Union of Hellenism, which includes Greek and Cypriot MPs from the US, Canada, Australia, Jordan and Kenya.

“We want to know what we can do to help Cyprus from abroad and we want to have open communication and that is what we hope to achieve after this meeting,” she said, adding that she was very proud to have met the President of Cyprus.

“It is very important for expatriate politicians to have a relationship with Cypriots and the Cypriot government,” she stressed.

Among the issues discussed were, the Cyprus occupation, energy issues and strengthening Cyprus’ relations with the countries where MPs of Cypriot descent have been elected.

In their statements the members of the delegation, expressed their readiness to help Cyprus on issues of concern and to promote them in the countries where they serve as MP’s.

Rhode Island Senator Leonidas Raptakis described the meeting with President Christodoulides as “very important”.

“We talked about all the issues. Energy, Cyprus issues, US, Greece, Australia, Canada, Kenya, Jordan. It was a very important discussion,” he said, stressing that “we need to think about issues not once a year, every two years. Every week, every month to have a good communication. It is very important for us who are elected with Greek roots how we can help the Cypriot people, how we can solve the issues, the problems here in the Eastern Mediterranean in our countries where we are elected and with our colleagues who are not Greek in the parliaments to send this serious message. It is very important that we had this visit with the president today”.

On a similar note, Cypriot-born US Congressman Michael Tanousis said “I am very proud to be here today especially as a son of refugees in New York. I am happy to be here with the delegation. We had a very constructive meeting yesterday with the US Ambassador to Cyprus,” he said.

“When we go back to the US we will work hard to help for the visa waiver programme so that Cypriots can come to the US without having to wait a year for the visa programme. We look forward to working with the Cypriot government to ensure a better standard of living for all Cypriot citizens and to do what we can to help with the Cyprus problem,” he added.

Senator in Jordan Gerasimos-Ode Kouas said that “We raised the issue that this should continue and there should be a mechanism to help the Cypriot people,” he said.

MP in Kenya Esther Pasharis said “we congratulate Cyprus for electing a very humble president with vision. We look forward to growing our organisation and serving the interests of the Greek people.”

Finally, MP to Canada Emmanuela Lampropoulou, sharing her appreciation commended the Cypriot President on his “good thoughts about the state”.

“He wants to use Greeks from abroad and Cypriots from abroad so that we can help Cyprus and Greece from afar. I think it will make our relations and communication between us, with the MPs from here, better so that we can work together on the issues that are very important for both of us,” she added.