Our Team
Marilia Charalambide is the Director and the Founder of CitizensACT. She is a well-educated musician with music qualifications at the highest of level (Vocals, Theory and Piano) that supported, her further studies at the University of Surrey, where she obtained the BMus degree. The Genres that she loves singing is mostly Greek ‘Entehno’ and ‘Folk’ music. Marilia, has participated in various music events, concerts, musicals and talent shows in Cyprus and the UK which have provided her with the opportunity to explore the world of music, dance and theatre. Throughout the years Marilia has developed an active role in social, environmental, mental and cultural issues. She is a great believer that citizens of all ages should fight for their rights, their dreams and their freedom. She has been involved in various environmental initiatives both in Cyprus and the UK, and has adopted an eco-friendly lifestyle with respect for the culture and traditions. She has also been supporting inter-generational activities as she strongly believes that the two generations have a lot to benefit from each other. Marilia has set up this organization to be able to empower and support other citizens to be civically engaged, to take an active role in all issues of their social life, and above all to support the young generation to fight for their dreams.
Avgi Procopiou completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences at the European University in Cyprus. Her academic background not only included scientific research, involving breast cancer metastasis but also different working experiences within leading scientific institutes, such as the Cyprus Institute of Neurology & Genetics and Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Heraklion. This gave her the chance to participate in empirical research projects with a focus on the assessment of artificial reef biodiversity.
Avgi has 5 years of teaching experience in the field of STEAM, where through technical skills and hands-on learning, aimed to encourage students to develop a growth mindset and believe that through effort, innovation and dedication, a person’s abilities can improve and that even the most difficult challenges have solutions. Furthermore, she participated in various science festivals, seminars, and competitions.
She was involved in different environmental workshops, volunteering, and projects, which all gave her the opportunity to identify and learn from good practices of different NGOs internationally and locally, such as the AKTI Project and Research Center. Her prime motivator is to promote the need for environmental education and research, equality and public awareness so that everyone together can achieve sustainable development and combat climate change.
Avgi is a positive and strong-minded individual, with a huge passion for the environment and sustainability.
Maria Theodosiadou is a retired educator and an author of children’s story books. She has worked for many years in pre-primary education as a head teacher of a marginalized school which had a large number of pupils from socio-economic backgrounds. Throughout the years she has set up programmes and took initiatives to empower women and single mothers to be able to have a balanced life with family duties and work. She is well-known in Cyprus for her active role in refugee camps and in marginalized schools to help and support vulnerable groups of people, especially children. She is a great believer of lifelong learning and inter-generational learning. At the age of 80 she started to learn how to use the internet and social media by attending classes.
Andreas Koufettas is a qualified Physical Education teacher with a wide range of teaching experience. He is also a Squash player with a specialisation in Squash Coaching. He has an undergraduate and post graduate degree (MSc) from Semmelweis University – Hungary from the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport. Andreas is a certified Sports Trainer in Squash (Budai Sportoktato Akademia-Budapest). He has also acquired the Level 1 Coaching Diploma in Austria and Level 2 Coaching Diploma in Hungary from the European Squash Federation.
Andreas has been an active member of the Cyprus National team and through his competitive career he has won many awards and prizes, both in national and international tournaments. In his professional coaching career, he has cooperated with many organizations such as the Cyprus Squash Federation, the Nicosia and Limassol Squash Association, as well as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. He was also a PE expert on pedagogical methodologies for initial primary school teachers studying at the European University of Cyprus. Since 2011 he is coaching squash as a special scientist at the Sports Department of the University of Cyprus.
Theodoros Antoniou is an ICT expert (Senior Advisor) with Computer Science studies from the University of Manchester. Theodoros is a born-programmer and a creative, project-driven developer with extensive experience in leading development teams. He has years of experience in FinTec, delivering high availability, real time, online trading platforms and client facing applications for banks, stock exchanges and other financial institutions in the UK, Singapore and internationally. He has extensive experience in Front-End development using web standard technologies such as Javascript, HTML5 and CSS, as well as popular frameworks such as React, Angular and others. His experience in working with mobile web applications is also noted, as well as his expertise in providing on-site training to clients and developers. He is currently a consultant offering services on a variety of topics such as Web Development, System Architecture, Digital Transformation and working with clients primarily from the Financial Industry such as Banks, and Brokers and other Financial Institutions.
