Charalambos Solonos

Charalambos Solonos Period at FWC June 2011- present Field of Study Diplomacy, Politics and International Relations,Conflict Resolution, History Local Mentor Corina Drousiotou Involvement at FWC Strengthening Asylum for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Cyprus 3rd International SDDP Facilitators Training School Accessing Development Education From Local to Global

He was born in Nicosia in 1986. He joined Future Worlds Center in June 2011 as an Intern. He stayed there as an intern until the end of September and now he is an associate. He is an ambitious young man, a History-Archaeology graduate & a Diplomacy postgraduate with ten months experience as an administrative assistant and student advisor at Aristotle University, eight months experience as an Registration Officer at the Ministry of Finance of Cyprus and four months experience as an intern at the Future Worlds Center.

Work Experience

Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute

Dates: June 2011 -

Main Activities and Responsibilities: Working on various research projects such as From Local to Global, URVT, CyberEthics, Accessing Development Education, TeachMDGs

Duties

• Working in projects beside experienced legal advisors, lawyers and psychologists
• Accessing clients’ files at the Refugee Reviewing Authority
• Conducting Country of Origin Information Research for appeals to the Reviewing Authority
• Administrative duties
• Participating in seminars, workshops, meetings and committees
• Organising multicultural events such as bi-communal festivals
• Translating texts and documents from English to Greek and from Greek to English
• Editing and drafting articles
• Liaising with refugees, asylum seekers and foreign officials

Ministry of Finance: Statistical Service, Registration Department

Dates: October 2011 - November 2011

Main Activities and Responsibilities:Enumerator of the Statistical Service
Duties

• Part of the Statistical Service of Ministry of Finance of Cyprus which conducted the 14th Census of Population in Cyprus as an enumerator
• Recorded housing units, households and population permanently residing in the government controlled areas, either in households or institutions
• Excellent knowledge of the method of data collection - Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) - with the use of netbooks and personal door to door interviews
• Excellent knowledge of the Cyprus Blaise Integrated Census System (CY-BICS) - the whole management process of the questionnaires was done through that
• Excellent knowledge of the Regulation 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on population and housing censuses as well as the Statistics Law No. 15 (I) of 2000, which provides the legal basis for the collection and publication of official statistics in Cyprus
• Excellent communication skills
• Ensured that every single individual cooperated because their cooperation was essential for the census outcome and the provision of data was mandatory by law
• Able to keep data and personal information strictly confidential

Ministry of Finance: Statistical Service, Registration Department

Dates: October 2010 - March 2011

Main Activities and Responsibilities:Registration Officer
Duties

• Part of a team of 30 people investigated more than 3,000 tax evasion cases; this task involved field work and subsequent reporting through the implementation of specific methodology
• Drafted letters to private individuals, organisations and government bodies on the issue of tax evasion.
• Logistical support – maintained financial records and prepared monthly financial reports.
• Maintained office records
• Property Registration
• Carried out an island-wide census and preparation of statistical records aroused from this census
• Assisted in the production of research publications and presentations

Education

University of Nottingham, September 2009 – September 2010

• Degree: M.A. Diplomacy
• Fields of study:Public International Law Evolution of Diplomacy Diplomacy: Theory and Practice Terrorism and Insurgencies Ethnic conflict and Conflict Resolution: Theories and Cases Europe and the Developing World
• Dissertation Topic: The EU and the Transformation of Border Conflicts: The case of Cyprus and the EU’s Impact on the Conflict. The dissertation argues that there is no direct causal effect of integration (or association) on border conflict transformation; such an effect, no matter how positive it is, is always mediated by local events and actors.

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 2005 - 2009

• Degree: B.A. History and Archaeology
• Fields of study:Ancient Greece History, Modern Era and Modern History, History of Education, Greek Literature,Roman Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology,English Literature,Theory and Methodology in History Social Organisation, Folklore and Social Anthropology, Christian and Byzantine Archaeology.

Kykkos A’ Lyceum,(19/20) Nicosia, Cyprus, 2001 - 2004

• Degree:Secondary Education Certificate, Human and Social Sciences
• Fields of study: English Language and Literature, Modern Greek,Ancient Greek,History,Latin

Workshops - Seminars

• Training Course,Coach me if you can!, Youth Express Network, Youth in Action Programme, 20 - 26 November 2011, Vila da Marmeleira, Portugal
• Participated in the first transnational meeting of the Lifelong Learning Programme Leonardo Da Vinci project called ‘The Project Method as a creative model in VET (Vocational Education Training)’, which took place in Krakόw – Poland from 17th - 20th October 2011.
• Coordinated the international conference From Local to Global,Future Worlds Center from Cyprus in partnership with NGO Youth Career and Advising Center from Lithuania, from 24-26 September 2011 at Paphos Gardens Holiday Resort. This educational programme helped local communities on contributing to EU Global Policies. 20 students from Cyprus and 20 students from Lithuania engaged in debates and identified common youth problems but also solutions to these problems.
• Appeared in August 2011 at the Cyprus Broadcasting Cooperation (CyBC) radio programme speaking about the method of SDDP (Structured Dialogue Design Process) and about my experience at the 3rd International Summer School on Structured Dialogic Design.
• Appeared in July 2011 at the Cyprus Broadcasting Cooperation (CyBC) radio programme speaking for racism, immigration and reconciliation among Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots.
• Participated on Youthcamp 2011 in Ballerup, Denmark, 11-14 August 2011: the camp consisted of a series of workshops about democracy, international political cooperation, project development, youth participation in decision making processes and much more.
• Participated at the 3rd International Summer School on Structured Dialogic Design which was organised by Future Worlds Center in collaboration with the Institute for 21st Century Agoras, in Nicosia, Cyprus, 25-27 July, 2011. Learning objectives:

Reaching a mutual understanding and building consensus on the main challenges related to civil society organizations and local authorities involved in cooperation. Finding ways to improve the effectiveness of civil society organizations and local authorities involved in cooperation, to advance and strengthen partnerships and exploring ways to adapt EC modalities accordingly.

• Participated in RE: ACT! - Youth Leader Training 2011 (16-20 June 2011) offered by the NGO Cyprus Network for Youth Development (Future Worlds Centre, the Mediation Association and the Cyprus Environmental Studies Centre). The programme was in the framework of the project ‘Youth Activism’ which was funded by UNDP ‘Action for cooperation and Trust’ and explored topics such as teamwork, leadership and decision-making, conflict resolution and compassionate (non-violent) communication, thinking skills and problem-solving, environmental sustainability and event management and planning
• Participated in a seminar for the ‘Cyprus Issue’ organised by the ‘Tassos Papadopoulos’ Research Institute (2010)
• Participated in workshops and presentations at international institutions such as Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, NATO, European Parliament, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 26th – 30th April 2010 in Netherlands and Brussels

Skills and Competences

Personal Skills and Competences

• Mother tongue : Greek
• Other language : English Fluent, French Intermediate, Turkish Ability to read and comprehend

Social Skills and Competences

• Hard-working and able to work under pressure
• Ability to work as part of a team or individually
• Discrete and well presented
• Able to exercise sound judgment on a case to case basis
• Able to show initiative
• Self-motivated and creative
• Ability to prioritise workloads effectively
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills

Organisational Skills and Competences

• Organizational abilities due to experience in event organization
• Facilitation of discussions to increase constructive debate and informed decision-making capabilities
• Event and activity coordination
• Budget management
• Problem solving
• Programme design, coordination and delivery

Computer Skills and Competences

• Professional in Internet Browsing
• Very good use of Microsoft Office™ tools (Word™, Excel™ and PowerPoint™)