Eleni Theocharous

Eleni Theocharous (Greek: Ελένη Θεοχάρους; born 24 June 1953) is a Cypriot pediatric surgeon and politician who is a member of christian democratic party Democratic Rally. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 and re-elected in 2014. Between 2001 and 2009, Theocharous was a member House of Representatives of Cyprus for the Limassol constituency.

Early life and education

Theocharous was born in Amiantos in 1953. She received her degree from the Faculties of Medicine and Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued to postgraduate studies in paediatric surgery in Manchester and Paris. She received her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from the Democritus University of Thrace and later continued postdoctoral studies in Boston (B.C.E.T.S.). She is a member of the American Trauma Academy.

Politics

At the parliamentary elections of 27 May 2001 she was elected Member of the House of Representatives standing as a DISY candidate in Limassol and was re-elected at the parliamentary elections of 21 May 2006. She was deputy chairwoman of the House Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the House Standing Committee on Health Affairs. She is currently a chairwoman of the House Standing Committee on Health Affairs and a member of the House Standing Committee on the Environment, of the House Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the House Standing Committee on Human Rights. She is also a member of the delegation of the House to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

In 2003 she was appointed by the House as observer to the European Parliament, where she was a member of the Political Group of the European People's Party.

Social and Humanitarian Activities

In 1991, Theocharous was elected Assistant Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the Democritus University of Thrace and from 1992 to 2001 she was director of the Paediatric Surgery-Paediatric Urology Clinic of the “Archbishop Makarios III” hospital in Nicosia, Cyprus. She has also served as a vice-president of the Cyprus Radio and Television Authority.

She was a member of the High Directorate of the “Médecins du Monde” international organisation and director of medical, environmental and provisionary projects of the International Aid Fund in Brussels.

As a member of international humanitarian organisations she participated in a great number of medical and other missions in war zones, including (Armenia, Bosnia, Kurdistan, Palestine, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh and Afghanistan. During these missions Theocharous worked as a volunteer surgeon, under mainly primitive conditions, with wounded people, soldiers, children, civilians, as well as the general population victims of war, natural disasters or poverty. Additionally, she is heavily involved in many countries mentioned above in fighting AIDS, poverty, famine, deforestation and other environmental issues, working closely with local authorities and non-governmental organizations, giving lectures and teaching at local institutions.

As the Director of the Environmental Projects of “Internationaler Hilfsfodns” Theocharous coordinates, administrates and participates in projects on location against desertification and hunger through projects for the restoration of the physical environment in the Gobi Desert (Hohhot Inner Mongolia), Chikombedzi (Zimbabwe), Central Highlands (Namibia), Guadi Gaza Swamp (Gaza Strip), the Bakanas Desert (Kazakhstan), Mendoza (Argentina), Osh and Batken (Kyrgyzstan), and Amiantos Asbestos Mines (Cyprus).

She is honorary president of the “Médecins du Monde - Cyprus” organization and a member of the Permanent Committee of the United Nations for the Promotion of Co-operation between Palestinian and Israeli Doctors. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Parliamentarians for the Defence of the Palestinian Cause.

Literary work

Theocharous has published a great number of works in literary magazines in Nicosia, Thessaloniki, Athens and Alexandroupolis and was included in anthologies of Cypriot writers published in Athens, Santiago de Chile, Amsterdam and Moscow.

Her first collection of poems, “Poetic Act and Political Co-Act” (1991) earned her the award of the First State Prize for Poetry. In 1995, she published her second collection of poems: “Proxenos Thanatos Angele Mou” (Greek: Πρόξενος Θάνατος Άγγελε Μου). The third collection of short stories was «Tempelokalokairo» (Greek: Τεμπελοκαλόκαιρο) (Indian summer). Her fourth collection of poems «Ellinosyron Magon» (Greek: Ελληνοσύρων Μάγων).

Many of her published poems and short stories have been translated in Armenian, Turkish, Russian and English.

In September 1992 she represented Cyprus at the 18th World Biennial of Poetry in Liège, Belgium.

In 1999 she published her third collection of poems “Oi Megaloi Tritoi” (Greek: Οι Μεγάλοι Τρίτοι, The Big Thirds) for which she was awarded, for the second time, with the First State Prize for Poetry.

As a poetess, Theocharous was invited for readings and lectures on contemporary Cyprus poetry at the Crimea University (Simferopol), the Warsaw National (Poland), the Russian-Slavonic Kyrgyz University (Bishkek), the National University of Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), the University of Valparaíso (Chile), the Ionian University (Corfu, Greece), and the Hellenic Cultural Centre (Moscow).

Honorary awards

Theocharous has been awarded the Gold Medal of Honour of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Gold Medal of the Democritus University of Thrace and the All Balkan Award of the Vardinoyiannis Foundation. She has received the First State Award for Poetry twice (1991 and 2000). The University of Minsk and the University of Syktyvkar have awarded her honorary doctorates. She has also received the “Margarette Golding” award of the Lions International and the “Paul Harris Fellow” title of the Rotary International, as well as various other awards.

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