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Relation to Future Worlds Center
Elia Petridou serves as Member of the Board since 2005. She also served as head of the Humanitarian Affairs Unit and the Unit for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture. She joined the FWC in January of 2004. The first project she undertook was the HasNa Inc., Media Literacy and Economic Collaboration project. From a Project Coordinator she evolved to a Programs Developer envisioning and initiating a number of socially responsible projects. With interns and other colleagues Elia developed projects like Extending EU Citizenship, SafenetCY, Cyberethics and URVT. Elia was invited in 2005 to join the Board of the Organization. Following some wandering, Elia is back with the Organization taking new challenges on Economic and Environmental Sustainability. From the 1st April 2012 Elia is the project coordinator of TeachMDGs and head the Global Education Unit.
Biography
Elia completed a BA (Double Major) in Economics and Political Science in New Jersey City University, NJ, USA. During her studies Elia has also interned with the Press Office of the Cyprus Mission to the UN in New York, a memorable experience she holds very dear. She then proceeded with her MA in Political Science/International Relations at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She returned back to Cyprus to complete her MA Thesis and seek employment. She got introduced to the civil society of the island through her collaboration with the NGO Support Centre, a UNOPS/UNDP Funded Project, concentrating on supporting the civil society and bringing the two conflicting communities closer. By January of 2004 Elia was already part of the FWC team working on a bicommunal project on media Literacy and Economic collaboration. Other projects that followed with Elia's mark of involvement include: Extending EU Citizenship, the Unit for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, Cyberethics, Cyprus's first safer internet awareness node and SafenetCY, Cyprus's hotline. On January of 2008 Elia traveled back to the US for a Fellowship she had received with the Graduate Center of CUNY to further enhance her knowledge on corporate philanthropy. Elia's paper concentrated CSR as a means of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication. The above fellowship, USAID funded, was followed by another study visit in the US organized by USAID concentrating on sessions with major corporate figures who have been successfully implementing CSR practices in their companies. A socially sensitive way of doing business should be the new norm and Elia is a strong believer in it, as she strongly believes on sustainable living behaviors! Elia is currently collaborating with the FWC team, an equally sensitized and forward looking group of individuals for promoting and embedding sustainability practices in the day to day operation of the organization. In addition through a collaboration with an already established team of fundraising professionals, she is working on Private Sector Fundraising for safeguarding the economic sustainability of her favorite NGO.
Trained Facilitator
Elia values constructive communication highly and strives to constantly improve her skills in that area. She is a trained SDDP[Structured Dialogic Design Process] Facilitator and has conducted co-Laboratories using the Structured Dialogic Design Process in many projects including URVT and the Cyberethics. She has further received training with the European Capacity Building Programme for International Cooperation at the Center for Advanced Training in Rural Development, Humboldt University in Berlin. The training concentrated on conflict prevention and conflict management. A firm believer of life long learning, Elia has recently completed two online training sessions, one with UNITAR on, Intro to Peace Operations and another on Human Rights Education with the North South Centre,of the Council of Europe.