PERSONAL STATEMENT
What motivates you to serve on the WAGGGS World Board, and how would your experiences, skills, values, and perspective contribute to its governance, strategic leadership, and the global mission of the Movement?
I was fortunate to grow up in a large Guiding family, in the island of Cyprus, and, having the women in my family as role models, I learned the importance of equality, and other values that today connect me with millions of girls and women. As a woman and a Guide, a journalist, a teacher and a journalists’ trainer, I dedicated time, work and passion, via various fora, to achieving the goal of gender equality, across the spectrum of life. Unfortunately, women today still experience inequality and injustice, proving that years of struggle led to little result.
Today, as much as when WAGGGS was founded, the values of Guiding and its overarching goal, the empowerment of girls, are more important than ever before. Our shared vision of a world where girls achieve their goals, can only be fulfilled if we renew our actions and give new impetus to our programs. This is my compass, the one that has guided me to seek election to the World Board. Because I believe that WAGGGS can make a worldwide difference, in the field of claiming equal rights and equal opportunities for women in work and personal life, struggle for peace, politics, economy and technology, sustainability and climate change. This being an opportunity but also a big challenge for our World Association in the years to come.
Being a professional journalist with a leading role at a big Media outlet, namely the News Director of ANTENNA Cyprus, and at the same time the elected Chairwoman of the Cyprus Media Ethics Committee, with successful activity on a wide range of issues, outside my small country as well, I believe that I have all that is required to be a Member of the World Board: Vision and leadership, strategic and critical thinking, communication skills, the ability to build trust and manage crisis of any kind, decision-making abilities, active participation in working groups, and above all empathy and emotional intelligence.
I add the knowledge and contacts with stakeholders I gained through my profession in the international field, that give me the ability to better understand differences among the Regions of our Global Movement, and each separate country and MO, acknowledge the varied needs and desires of girls, and mainly how best our goals can be achieved.
From my experience in the field of teaching, but also as an active member of the Girl Guides Association of Cyprus (among the younger District Commissioners at the age of 24, and serving as International Commissioner from 2019 until today), I love working with young people, and I can easily understand their desires, concerns and dreams, knowledge that can be transformed into new ideas for a renewed connection of WAGGGS with Member Organisations globally.
Empirically, I also know that I serve as a means of inspiration for girls and young women, so that they can learn to assert themselves, be productive, both as professionals and as volunteers, and work for a better world and on transforming into role models themselves.
