International Peacemaker Efi Latsoudi is coming to our Presbytery Sept. 23 (Friday) – 28th (Wednesday) courtesy of your Peace and Global Witness Offering. She’s available any of those dates to come to your church and community. She can visit your school, community group, your study group, your youth group, meet your folk over breakfast, coffee, lunch, or for an evening program. Please contact Lisa Ross Thedens at lrossthedens@gmail.com.
We who participated in the zoom meeting with her last year were deeply moved by her large, strong heart which reaches across every divide to mend the wounded and reconcile the estranged.
About Efi Latsoudi:
Psychologist and human rights activist Efi Latsoudi is one of the founders of Lesvos Solidarity, a grass-roots organization based on Lesvos Island in Greece. Efi was also the coordinator and founder of the first open, independent welcoming shelter (Pipka Camp) for refugees fleeing to Greece primarily from Africa and the Middle East. Pipka Camp had operated for 8 years, until it was forcibly closed by the Greek authorities in Oct. 2020.
Efi’s determination and commitment to advocate for the vulnerable remains strong. Lesvos Solidarity, which is focused on a strong advocacy presence for the rights of the refugees, runs housing, educational, employability, psychosocial and medical programs. The organization’s vision is to inspire society and to expand its solidarity model, which promotes equality, trust, creativity, empowerment, active participation, and respect for each other and for the environment. Lesvos Solidarity’s beneficiaries are among the most vulnerable refugees hosted in camps across Lesvos, including people who suffer from serious medical conditions, victims of torture and violence, large families with children, pregnant women, newborns, LGBTQIA+ persons, single adults, and victims of shipwrecks who lost loved ones at sea.
Efi is also a filmmaker who has created short documentaries and films and written scripts for fiction films. Efi holds degrees from the University of Athens, School of Philosophy, the University of Picardi-Jules Vernes in Maitrise de Psychology Clinic and the University of Paris. In 2016, she was awarded the Nansen Award, conferred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to those who go beyond the call of duty in helping people forcibly displaced from their homes.