STEAM EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE INTEGRATION | HILL MEMORIAL SCHOOL ATHENS | 12 MARCH 2018
SPEAKERS
LEFTERIS PAPAGIANNAKIS Vice Mayor on Migrant & Refugee Affairs | City of Athens
Lefteris Papagiannakis was born in France in 1971. He completed his primary and secondary education in Greece. He returned to France to study public law in the University of Lille II, followed by a DEA in European Community Law and International Economic Law. After the completion of his studies, he worked in the European Parliament as a parliamentary assistant. Since then he also worked on the education of the Muslim minority in Greece (in Thrace), as a legal counselor for the political party Ecologists Green and the Special Secretariat on environmental inspection. He was elected in the municipal council of Athens in 9/2014 and named vice mayor on migrant and refugee affairs in 3/2016
SIAN ROWBOTHAM | Project Manager | Norwegian Church Aid
Sian has been working in the development and humanitarian sector for ten years. She joined the Red Cross shortly after graduating university in the UK. Since then she has worked for a number of INGOs specialising in working alongside local civil society organisations to respond to emergencies and has worked in Kenya, the Philippines, Pakistan And South Sudan. Sian has worked for FCA since summer 2017 and worked initially alongside Apostoli and ELIX to deliver the UNICEF/ECHO funded non-formal education classes for refugees in multiple sites in Thessaloniki and Athens. More recently she has been supporting Norwegian Church Aid with the Code+Create project aiming to provide digital skills to refugees and under privileged Greeks in Athens.
PENELOPE SOTIROPOULOU | Project Coordinator | Goethe Institut
Penelope Sotiropoulou studied German Language and Literature at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. She holds a Master of Arts in Personnel Management and Development of competences via new media from the Danube University Krems. Since February 2012 she has been working as a project coordinator for the Goethe-Institut Athens in several large scale projects.
CONSTANTINOS MACHAIRAS | Managing Director | Organisation Earth
Constantinos Machairas is the Managing Director of Organization Earth a Greek NGO that promotes Sustainable Development through its initiatives Center of the Earth, Earth Refugee and Aephoria. Since November 2016 Constantinos is the President of the Hellenic Platform for Development, the umbrella-organization for Greek NGOs and the Greek representative of Concord, the pan-European Confederation for Relief and Development representing 2600 NGOs. He is a member of the Board of Director of ActionAid Hellas, the organization's steering body in Greece as well as a member of the Board of Director of Margarita Vocational Training Centre. He is the General Secretary of IFOAM ABM that promotes Mediterranean Organic Agriculture and the connection between Organic Agriculture and Sustainable Development.
DESPINA MITROPOULOU | Director | Greek Free Open Source Society
Despina received her BSc (Hons) in Digital Media from the University of Portsmouth and her MSc in Child-Computer Interaction from the University of Central Lancashire. She started working for GFOSS – Open Tecnologies Alliance in 2010 as a project coordinator and is currently the Director of the organization. While working for GFOSS, she has participated in the design and implementation of various multidisciplinar projects.
ARIS PAPADOPOULOS | Founder & Director of Innovation | L A T R A
Aris Papadopoulos is a Humanitarian Entrepreneur & Founder of award-winning LATRA, the world’s first incubator situated inside a refugee camp in his native island of Lesbos. LATRA specializes in circular design, environmental engineering & digital applications for the humanitarian sector, and its goal is to empower beneficiaries with 21st Century skills, in order to become directors of their lives and combat the adversities that they, and their communities face. LATRA was the winner of the Global Be.Creative Challenge 2017, Shortlisted for the prestigious ARUP Global REsearch Challenge Award, as well as the Network for Innovation and Creativeity Europe Award. LATRA has also been awarded a Start-Up Grand and two Internationalisation Programs from Stimuleringsfonds Creative Industries in the Netherlands, as well as a Culture & Art Program by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
