With an objective of cultivating international solidarity and cooperation between states for addressing the pandemic, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Mrs Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, is making a series of contacts with important personalities and leaders from across the world.

In this context, on Thursday, 21 May 2020, Mrs Vardinoyannis had a teleconference with the Co-Chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center and former President of Latvia, Dr. Vaira Vike Freiberga, with whom she has a close cooperation, since Mrs Vardinoyannis is a founding member of the International Organisationand a member of the Board of Trustees.

Athens, Tuesday 19 May 2020

Mrs Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, President of the Honorary Committee for the “Salamis – Thermopylae 2020” Anniversary Year, referred to the teachings drawn from Thermopylae and Salamis, saying that “’I’ gave its place to ‘We’”. And the few showed the many that people are not numbers, and the soul and spirit are the true strength of man, Marianna Vardinoyannis noted in her intervention in the online discussion organised by the Delphi Economic Forum, titled 2,500 years after Thermopylae and Salamis:

Love and giving for children know no borders.  The major contribution of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center to the ‘Marianna V. Vardinoyannis – ELPIDA’ Children’s Oncology Unit proved this, supporting hospitalized children and medical staff by sending 5,000 protective masks.

This wonderful initiative is creating a bridge of friendship between Greece and Azerbaijan, as the NGIC operates with the support of the country’s President, Ilham Aliyev, and First Lady and Vice President, Mehriban Aliyeva, who have close bonds of friendship with the President of the ‘ELPIDA Association of Friends of Children with Cancer’,

The ‘Marianna V. Vardinoyannis’ Foundation and the ‘ELPIDA Association of Friends of Children with Cancer’ continue to offer hope and consolation to our fellow human beings suffering hardship throughout Greece due to the pandemic.

This time, the solidarity and love travelled to the Holy Metropolis of Gortynos and Megalopolis in Arcadia, where, on Monday, 4 May 2020, on the initiative of Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, food and necessities were delivered to cover the needs of the Metropolis’s meal programme, in the context of its humanitarian work.