Who We Are

Kyclos was born  in late 2017 out of a vision of an anthropologist, an engineer and a group of young refugees who wanted to make roots in Greece. The team aimed to showcase that cross-disciplinary teamwork fosters the development of personnal and professional skills, mitigates barriers for cross-integration and offers opportunities for interpersonal connection


Kyclos is open 5d/week, 6 hours per day with approx. 150 people participating daily in its activities related to education, empowerment, commmunity building and income creation. In total more than 1000 refugees and asylum seekers, men and women from all age groups have been part of Kyclos. Most are staying at the camp sites around Attica  at UNHCR accommodation, at shelters for unaccompanied minors, or are self accommodated.

Kyclos promotes co-existence, co-creation, co-development, solidarity, cooperation and, ultimately, strengthens the community notion and a feeling of belonging

THE FOUNDERS

Katerina Polychroni is a Social Anthropologist with an MA in Gender Studies and trained in the Systemic Approach to Group Process and Psychotherapy. Her expertise is on issues of migration, community building and social integration. She has been working with refugees since 2008 developing creative alternative teaching group methods aimed at self development and empowerment. 
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    Being fluent in English, French, Farsi and Dari, she has worked for several NGOs as a social scientist and  interpreter. Employed in UNHCR for two years, she worked in all 13 refugee camps of Attica. In several of them she organized and implemented Community Based Activities. In 2017 she quit UNHCR to embark on a life dream: She founded “KYCLOS”, a space run by the community, for the community. In Kyclos, she specializes in social and professional integration of Unaccompanied Minors and refugee families along with the creation of activities that foster effective coexistence in the community. She is the main tutor and the main coordinator of empowerment activities.

Alexandra Bonou is a Civil Engineer with a MSc in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Life Cycle Assessment for ecodesign. Her expertise on sustainable production has been applied on national and international projects for the private, the public sector and for academia. Living in Denmark since 2008 she has been member of  InnoAid.org, a Danish volunteering NGO that aims to increase quality of life for people, ..
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    by co-creating innovative solutions together with academia and local communities. She has designed and implemented projects related to circular economy supporting income creation and better life in rural and urban India . Upon her return to Greece in 2017, she joined forces with Katerina in order to create a community space that could address integration holistically (social, professional, cultural) In Kyclos she specialised in the design, implementation and monitoring of social entrepreneurship initiatives such as the soap making workshop, and the tailoring workshop. Lastly she is the Kyclos’ program coordinator.

WE COLLABORATE

Kyclos cooperates with academia, NGOs, the public and the private sectors and with Institutions. We are embrased by simple people and our neigbourhood that actively support us. Since 2019 Kyclos is a UNHCR implementing partner.

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