Marianna Vardinoyannis

Former Goodwill Ambassador, UNESCO

Bio Current as of July 25, 2023

Marianna V. Vardinoyannis was a Greek philanthropist and a world advocate and campaigner for human rights and children’s health.

Her work is internationally recognized. She was Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and she was the recipient of the 2020 Nelson Mandela Prize of the United Nations.

She was Founder/President of “Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation”, “ELPIDA Friends’ Association of Children with cancer” and “Orama Elpidas Association”.
For more than 30 years, she fought against childhood cancer helping thousands of children to be cured from cancer. Among other initiatives, she created the first Pediatric Oncology Hospital in Greece.

She struggled for the protection of human rights, children and families, people in need and refugees in Greece. She supported the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and UNESCO programs for education, peace, cultural heritage and dialogue among civilizations.

She was Founder and Honorary President of the “Alexandria Center for Hellenistic Studies”, member of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Advisory Board and of the Leadership Councils of “Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights” and “Concordia”, trustee of the “MENTOR Foundation” and the “Nizami Ganjavi International Center”, President of the Honorary Committee of the Special Olympics Hellas, and other.

She held a BA in Economics, BA in History of Art and MPhil in Archaeology and she received many international distinctions for her humanitarian work.