Guests

Ekaterini Prokopiou, Cyprus

Ekaterini wears many hats - Counselling Psychologist, Systemic Psychotherapist, Family Therapist, Solution Focused BRIEF & PROKOP Practitioner, Body Centered Psychotherapist, Trainer and Youthworker.  She works with children, adolescents, adults and the elderly on an individual basis but also in small and large group settings and in a variety of areas including Humanitarian Education, Coaching, Mentoring, Well-being, non-formal learning, life-long learning, resilience, AAD (Adversity Activated Development), Human Rights and Family Services.

​

Morgaine Green, UK

Morgaine dedicates her working life (and part of her personal one too!) to personal and social change and growth through artistic “languages" and creativity. With a masters degree in Culture of Peace, Conflict, Education and Human Rights, and ample complementary studies and training in project design with gender perspective, art therapy, social intercultural mediation through art, positive transformation of conflicts through art and play, social and educational intervention in penitentiary centres, management of non profit organisations and volunteering. A large part of her professional career has been focused on social intervention and mediation with young people with diverse abilities and at risk of social exclusion, community art programmes (including theatre, dance, clown, storytelling, graffiti, interactive games, photography and videoart, among others), European youth projects, training and group facilitation. She plays and teaches Afrobrazilian percussion, and is a keen enthusiast of tap dancing, creative writing and body percussion.

 

She has spent the last decade discovering and developing non-formal methodologies, applying them in inclusive learning spaces and participatory processes at a local and international level with intercultural and diverse abilities groups in areas such as inclusion, equity, diversity, educational leisure, nonviolent direct action, peace education and human rights.  An advocate for lifelong learning and ground-up collective creation of knowledge, Morgaine is also a member of Otra Escuela association, freelance trainer, and founder of Hélice association “propelling creativity and diversity.”

​

Ruby Rain, USA

Ruby shares a wide range of practical information garnered from academia, extensive travel and multicultural ceremony / theatre from the past three decades.  Comments on her presentations include: "You were spell-binding!" "We laughed so hard, we almost wet our pants!" and  "It was clear the Feminine Divine was shining through."

 

Rianne C ten Veen, The Netherlands

Rianne is a trainer, facilitator, assessor, researcher and project manager with preferred focus on environment / sustainability related matters.  She has an interdisciplinary background both in terms of education (e.g. LLM, MA, MSc) as well as work sector (commercial, NGO, academic).  Growing up she spent years living in a number of countries and has also as an adult lived, worked and / or visited a significant number of countries.

 

Gil Nunes, Portugal

Gil is a youth worker from the Municipality of Gaia.  He was part of #Gaia2024 – European Youth Capital Candidacy Team and is actively in various projects including Participatory Budgeting for Youth and Ricardo Quaresma scholarships, among others.   He is also the Ambassador of the European Platform on Learning Mobility for Portugal and five-times novelist.   For several years he also worked as a football scout and as a sports journalist for a number of national and international publications.  He is also a football commentator and sports expert for the Russian press.

 

Gemma Aragonés, Spain

Gemma is a social worker, trainer, and clown with experience in working with young people, the disabled and those within the prison system.   She works with groups at risk of social exclusion using non-formal education and performing arts to foster self-learning, reflection, and empowerment.   She has created Alter Network, an association that works to promote opportunities for young people in Bulgaria, with future headquarters in Italy and Spain.  She is currently teaching circus and clowning to children, youth and people with disabilities and facilitating workshops on Comedy Theatre and Improv Theatre for youth workers. 

 

Mara Rodrigues, Poland

Mara is a trainer, youth worker, and youth leader at the local level, in Leszno, Poland and at regional level in the Wielkopolska region, as well as at an  international level around Europe.  She is the author of educational programme content designed with and for young people that are willing to promote active citizenship and the Erasmus+ Programne at the local, regional and European levels.   She is passionate about education, in particular, non-formal education and learning-centred approaches for personal and professional development, as well as lifelong learning.  Mara studied Social Communication, with an emphasis on international communication and communication across cultures and finished her master’s degree in international Relations, with a paper work on creative thinking in IR. She loves sharing learning experiences and knowledge with people to develop ideas together.

 

Dr. George Simons, USA

George created the award-winning diversophy® intercultural competence games for training programmes and online learning (www.diversophy.com).   He authored and edited EuroDiversity: A Business Guide to Managing Difference, and is co-author of Putting Diversity to Work, Seven ways to Lighten your Life before you Kick the Bucket, as well as eight Cultural Detective® intercultural guides.   Currently he focuses on developing tools and expertise for addressing pressing social issues of masculinity and mental health.

 

Marta Moientale, Italy

Marta stepped onto the stage for the first time in 2014.  Since then, she hasn't found the exit….yet!  She is also an 'authoress' of stories and comedy.  She loves to explore the world and likes to be inspired by nature and humanity.  She uses humor to survive the daily jungle.  In 2018 she started her adventure in the field of clown therapy.  Based in Trentino, Italy, Marta frequently flies all around Europe for Erasmus+ projects.  In 2020, with other education-through-art’s enthusiasts, she founded ALTER Network, a European NGO.  Her goal is to help people to boost their creativity and self-confidence. With this mission she designs training and consultations in the artistic field.

 

Jo Wilkie, UK

Jo is a British intercultural psychologist specialised in the promotion of resilience and mental health and migration.  She has lived and worked all over the world and is presently living in Barcelona with her Guatemalan husband and 3 teenage children.  She has worked in diverse organisations and many sectors over the years and recently has worked as an online dialogue facilitator for Erasmus Virtual exchange and also as a tutor for Unicaf online Pan African university.    She is interested in promoting resilience with different groups and over the last few years has worked mainly with young people from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities.  Before becoming a psychologist, she worked in music.  She has lived in 7 countries and speaks 3 languages.

 

Carmine Rodi Falanga, Italy

Carmine does a lot of things. He is a trainer, facilitator, lecturer, storyteller, author, blogger, stand-up comedian, psychotherapist-in-training.  Active since 2001, he operates as a freelance professional in the field of communication and training for individuals, public entities, NGOs and businesses.  He uses the power of stories and world-building, activities based on experience, and educational games to create fun and effective tailor-made learning opportunities with a very personal touch.   Some of his specialties are communication skills, public speaking, personal and organisational development, story crafting and storytelling, comedy and humor, game-based learning, intercultural communication and understanding.   Born near Napoli (Italy) he currently lives in Prague (Czech Republic) with one wife, two children, one cat and one domestic robot - that's way more than he can manage!

 

Kelinha Brandão, Portgual

Kelinha is a Social and Educational Animator currently working with kids in afterschool activities.  In her free time, she likes to volunteer (at local and European level) and performs with a theatre group near her home town.  She loves to bake, to knit and to write and read children's stories.  Since restrictions and lockdown began, Kelinha has been reading books online for her friends and their kids in a bid to keep smiles on the faces of the young ones and the sanity of the older ones!

 

Eleni Plevra, Greece

Eleni, lives in Thessaloniki and is President of EnoGreece and works at Hellenic Ministry of Education.  A teacher by profession, she organises e-twinning seminars and is a trainer in digital tools for teachers.  She studied at Ekda and is an authorized trainer in human trafficking.  She has MSDs in Gender Equality and Water Management.

 

Joanna Nikolova, Bulgaria

Joanna's passion is to travel and explore the connection the connection with her body, the people around her, and nature. She has a great love for theatre and it gave her the chance to meet a method that is all about connection, i.e., Theatre of the Oppressed.  Together with Yoga and Nonviolent Communication, Theatre of the Oppressed is the gem in her toolkit when it comes to connecting with the inner power.  Join Joanna to explore the beauty of the rebellion in the body and how you can use the method to support young people (or yourselves for that matter) to express themselves freely in the world!"

 

Fergal Barr, Northern Ireland

Involved in Youth Work since 1987, parent & grandparent Fergal is a passionate devotee to the value, benefits, relevance and importance of humour as a means of engaging and transforming relationships with people.  A firm advocate of International Youth Work, he is a lifelong (sometimes suffering) Liverpool Supporter and excessive tea drinker.  He is also an avid book reader and occasional author having published books in 2008, 2011 and 2020.  He also has the distinction of single-handedly changing employment law in Northern Ireland in 2001.    His Youth Work background includes Youth Information, Education Welfare, Community Relations, Volunteering, Mentoring, and Peace & Reconciliation.  In addition, he has worked in Centre Based, Street Work, Participation, Rural & Urban based Youth Work.  As well as working in Family Support and Social Justice, he has been involved in facilitation and training at local, national and international level, particularly within YOUTH / Youth in Action / Erasmus+ for almost three decades and now and again, does the odd bit of consultation, evaluation and research.