Elena Karagianni

Elena Karagianni has studied Arts at the Athens School of Fine Arts and Humanitarian Studies at the Hellenic Open University. She has been teaching art in public schools since 1998. In 2016, she was appointed as a Refugee Education Coordinator at the Camp of Schisto. In 2014, she participated with four other teachers in a research mission in Rwanda, where they studied the history and educational system of the country, in order to create educational material for the Greek schools, based on the principles of developmental education (“Send My Friend to School”/Rwanda, 2014, ActionAid Hellas). In 2019, she wrote “The Diary of a Teacher: Stories from the Refugee Camps,” published by 24Grammata, where she describes her experiences as a teacher in the field of multicultural education.

In the discussion she represents the Art and Action Network, an association of teachers and artists that empowers through art and education refugee children, HIV positive people in prison, female, male, and transgendered sex workers (Red Umbrella Athens), and more.

From 2001 to 2018, she has organized School Art Festivals under the auspices of the Municipality of Athens and with the support of the Office of Refugee Education of the Greek Ministry of Education, UNHCR and UNICEF.