OUR TEAM

COORDINATOR:

NIKOLAS NIKOLAOU

Nikolas Nikolaou is a crucial part of the project and he is managing the logistical, and economic part of the project as well as the travelling arrangements. Nikolas Nikolaou (president of NGO ACPELIA) plays a central or peripheral role in every project with his expert knowledge. Due to the fact that he is successful as a coach and organizer in his personal life as we can see from the small CV that follows he is going to have 2 evenings training of youth workers about his experience in coaching.

President of our Organization (Mr Nikolas Nikolaou, physics teacher in high school, BSC, MSc in Chemical Engineering National Technical University of Athens and MSc, BSc in the University of Cyprus at Physics department) has previous experience by taking part in many seminars and actions related to Environment, Non-Formal Education, Entrepreneurship and Discrimination. He organized and participated in more than 20 European programs which are doing with Non-Formal Education (KA105, KA205, KA229, Youth In Action) as well as several local environmental and Science projects with groups of young people, many of them can be found in his website: www.nikolas-nikolaou.net. Also, Nikolas is coordinating the biggest students and teacher annual Conference about Natural Sciences that is a yearly conference in Cyprus with the participation of more than 1000 students and more than 300 teachers. He manages to coach a team of the organising committee and to make them all do well for 10 years now that is taking place the Conference starting alone and now has a big team to coordinate.

PROJECT WRITER/ NOT ABLE TO ATTEND: OLYA KHVASEVICH

Olya Khvasevich has experience both in formal and non-formal education and has been involved in youth work since 2013. She gets involved in creation and implementation stages of the educational events on the local and international level on the topics of personal development, active citizenship, participation, inclusion, arts and culture. Olya is passionate about theater and art. She participated in the troop of youth amateur theater "Insight" in Minsk (2017-2019), also taking part in a variety of workshops. She also took part in the long-term training course for trainers "Art of togetherness" (France, 2018), in order to improve facilitating skills and trainer's competences. After, in 2021 she studied Modern theatre in European College of Liberal Arts in Minsk, taking part in the performances on socially important topics. Olya strongly believes in the power of arts and non-formal education and the positive impact they have on people.

PROJECT MANAGER/ TRAINER: EVANGELIA NIKOLAOU

Evangelia Nikolaou graduated from the University of Hertfordshire with a first-class PLUS honours degree in Philosophy with Media. She is doing a Postgraduate Philosophy Degree at the University of Bristol on the strength of a fully-funded Think Big scholarship. As a youth worker, she was physically involved in the following Erasmus Plus Projects: Biodiversity of Rivers (Romania, 2014), Climate Changes as Fast as Fashion (Cyprus, 2014), Non-Formal Environmental Education (Cyprus, 2015), Save Our Environment Save Ourselves (2018-2019), Act for Changes (2021), Out of the Box (Cyprus, 2021), Another way (Italy, 2021). As a project manager, assistant project manager, or Trainer, she is involved in some of the following projects: Green Innovation and Circular Economy, Re-connect with Nature, Closing the Gender Gap and Empowerment of All Women Through Education, etc. Her research focuses on issues of environmental sustainability, equality, diversity, and inclusion, and she is constantly on the lookout for ways to expand these concepts. More particularly, empathy is her area of interest and expertise. She strives to link empathy with diversity, equality, inclusion, and eco-friendliness, in all of her endeavours. She is fluent in Greek, English, and German, whereas her interests include volunteering, being involved with Erasmus+ Projects, reading books, as well as writing, having published a philosophical book.

TRAINER: ERMA GEORGIOU

Erma Georgiou has a great passion in the development of individuals as well as groups, and this is the reason that she decided to become a facilitator at Acpelia. She gained a BA in Theatre Studies from the University of Athens, and then graduated from the drama school of G. Armenis.She is also registered as a yoga and meditation teacher from Yoga Alliance Institute and has attended various seminars on theatrical techniques such as physical theatre, voice lessons e.t.c.But,she is always searching ways to empower people and finding therapy through arts and therefore she attended drama therapy lessons. She has worked with children of refugee background in Elix N.G.O at Athens and she attended to the workshop "Facilitate Teachers using the arts in working with groups'' from P.Y.E organization and she was impressed by the creativity of the process as well as the potential of arts to empower people.

Shortly thereafter, she joined the Erasmus Plus non-formal education program called "How to be a mentor" in Lithuania. This program enabled her to see deeper that empowering others is the direction that she wishes to grow professionally. During this programme she gained skills and competences such as the ability to commit in supporting, inspiring and motivating a positive outlook for the future.Afterwards, she found a creative program called "Mnimosini" at Hellenic Youth Participation,a group that the participants connect to each other through various artistic activities such as dance,dramatherapy,expression in painting and movement etc in order to create local art actions exploring the idea of identity and transformation. Last year, representing SEAL CYPRUS in the trainers' training "Dramatize" in Ukraine gave her the opportunity to expand in both a professional and personal level, while acquiring tools in which she can bring together both her passion for theatre as well as her passion to empower people and organizations.Last but not least, she educated and certified as aManadoob educator, a social emotional program that empowers and enrich the lives of children and recently she attended at an online course "Introduction to Dialogue Facilitation", a useful tool for every facilitator.

FACILITATORS: Orfeas Kritikos and Orestis Kritikos

Both brothers came as special guests to give a speech and perform a workshop about social and digital entrepreneurship.

General Support Stuff: Marina Georgiou

Marina Georgiou holds a degree in journaling and audiovisual communication and creative writing. She is trained in photography, arts and life coaching. She participated in over 10 Erasmus Plus projects, being involved in different ways. Her hobbies include writing, painting, photography, hiking, and being an avid reader of classical literature.