Active Cypriot Programs and European Learning Into Acceptance, ACPELIA 

Active Cypriot Programs and European Learning Into Acceptance, ACPELIA was founded in 2019 in Limassol Cyprus. Actually, the part of the European Programs of Cultural Association NOSTOS Pissouriou transferred in a new created organization, the ACPELIA, which will continue with the same OID and PIC number (Organisation is on rular area of Cyprus with members from all over Cyprus and other Rular areas, our organisation is in close cooperation with community councils of these rulars areas). All the members of Cultural Association are also members of NGO ACPELIA. Main aim of the Organization is the rescue, preservation and transmission of cultural heritage, sustainability of the environment, discrimination, social and environmental entrepreneurship, social inclusion, elimination of discrimination and racism and the grant to our members of the chance to involve in themes about Environment, Culture, Sports, Racism, Equality, Democracy and Discrimination.

Main aim of the Organization is the rescue, preservation and transmission of cultural heritage, sustainability of the environment, discrimination, social and environmental entrepreneurship, social inclusion, elimination of discrimination and racism and the grant to our members of the chance to involve in themes about Environment, Culture, Sports, Racism, Equality, Democracy and Discrimination. Cultural and Sports activities promote social inclusion, human rights and help in the limitation of the discrimination among the generations. In an effort to promote the above-mentioned important values, the association is organizing cultural, informative, educational and interactive activities for youth with the new European Programs department of the association. Those activities include dancing, theater, educational activities with games and action, and other performances where young people are able to learn about humanity issues through Non-Formal Education.

In the organisation we are working in a lot of themes according to the needs of the area and generally youth workers that are working for our organisation. Such themes are:

• Culture and Interculture activities
• Human and Women's Rights against Discrimination
• Music, Theater, Drama and Arts
• Tourism programs according to our area
• Environmental Research and Science themes
• Sports
• Mental Health
• Digital Competences
• Inclusion

OUR TEAM 

Nikolas Nikolaou, Project Manager

Nikolas Nikolaou (president of NGO ACPELIA) will have the main coordination of the program and actually, he is the one that he will have in mind the whole procedure with partners organisations and he is going to keep timetable as an expert project manager. Due to the fact that he is successful as a coach and organizer in his personal life as we can see from the small CV that follows he is going to have 2 evenings training of youth workers about his experience in coaching.

President of our Organization (Mr Nikolas Nikolaou, physics teacher in high school, BSC, MSc in Chemical Engineering National Technical University of Athens and MSc, BSc in the University of Cyprus at Physics department) has previous experience by taking part in many seminars and actions related to Environment, Non-Formal Education, Entrepreneurship and Discrimination. He organized and participated in more than 20 European programs which are doing with Non-Formal Education (KA105, KA205, KA229, Youth In Action) as well as several local environmental and Science projects with groups of young people, many of them can be found in his website: www.nikolas-nikolaou.net. Also, Nikolas is coordinating the biggest students and teacher annual Conference about Natural Sciences that is a yearly conference in Cyprus with the participation of more than 1000 students and more than 300 teachers. He manages to coach a team of the organising committee and to make them all do well for 10 years now that is taking place the Conference starting alone and now has a big team to coordinate. 

Orfeas Kritikos, Management Team 

Orfeas Kritikou is a passionate and creative person. He is a graduate of Leeds Beckett University in Business and Management degree. He also did his master's degree in MBA which help him to be more professional and open-minded. He loves learning new languages, meeting new people and travelling around the world. Furthermore, he has participated in various non-profit programs and lectures in various countries. He participated in several Erasmus+ projects carried out in various countries and was the leader of the Cypriot group in some of them.  

He is the vice president of NGO ACPELIA and he works in a lot of projects either as trainer, or in management team or in board team of each program. 

Maria Markou, Trainer, Coach, training team 

Maria Markou has a BSc in Computer Science and the final year project (Thesis): Mobile Application for the disabled Cypriot population, «Cyprus Disabled Parking Service: A Smartphone Application». She also did her MSc in Data Science and Engineering and the final year project (Thesis): Heavy-Tailed Recurrent Latent Variable Networks for Session-Based Recommendation. She works as an IT / Computer Science Instructor in the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth. As a teacher is responsible for delivering vibrant and engaging lessons within the framework of the secondary School's education program. However, is responsible for maintenance of the school, troubleshooting technical problems in computers and anything related to technology. She has knowledge of the latest technology, mainframe computers, networking technology and programming languages for the normal running of the school and not only. She also participated in several big projects in university some of which were research, others were mobile applications and software projects for pcs. Maria also participated in several Erasmus+ projects. Therefore, Maria has a disability, and she is moving with a wheelchair. That did not affect her because also is an athlete of powerlifting on a bench and is currently claiming participation for the Tokyo Paralympics 2021. She has been in sports since she was 4 years old before the accident, has competed at Championship Level: Sprinter (Track and Field), Basketball, Volleyball, Football, Swimming and Artistic Gymnastic. A today is a person with a disability and she competes at a global level in the sport para powerlifting with various distinctions, basketball wheelchair and swimming. This year she has been awarded the "Hercules Top Para-Athlete Prize" for 2020 in Cyprus, as a weightlifter on a bench. Furthermore, she is an active member of Pancyprian organization of rehabilitation of disabled, member of the Department for Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities, she is a speaker at schools and related events "The Life with a disability", participates in schools and events with the main goal of promoting sports for people with mobility difficulties. Participates in various campaigns such as the "Elimination of Violence against Women", "I feel unique, You", participates in the group «LiFEmotions Athletes Support» with the main goal of promoting sports for people with mobility difficulties and together to improve our daily lives, participates in a charity fashion show on «Goal in Life» with the support of the ΚΟΑ. Also, she is a volunteer in overcoming body shame is a non-profit organization that aims to raise a sum of money and give it to people who really need it. Participates in the 1st overcoming body shame «Breast Cancer Cyprus», 2nd overcoming body shame «Autism Awareness Cyprus», 3rd overcoming body shame «Childhood Cancer Awareness Cyprus", 4th overcoming body shame «Leukemia Fighters Cyprus», 5th overcoming body shame «Bodychild Sexual Abuse Cyprus», in the event «light it up blue campaign autism».