Yiota Afxentiou

Yiota Afxentiou Ioannidou was born in Varosi, into a family of four children. She grew up in the Agia Triada neighbourhood until she was fourteen. Her parents are from the Famagusta district; her father, Georgios F. Ioannidis, was a textile merchant from Trikomo, and her mother, Thalia Tsokkou, was from Avgorou.

Her life and dreams as a teenager were shattered when some politically immature people with unrealistic dreams used fear and violence to get their way. The junta in Greece at the time, together with EOKA B, opened the floodgates to Turkish invaders, bringing death, uprooting and destruction.

It experiences and realises in the most difficult way what it means to think that you determine your own fate and future. Uprooting is like half death. Without roots and without a home, you become at the mercy of decisions made by others, without you. All this and more determines her present and future course.

As a refugee during her school years, she became involved in volunteer work, helping in homes for the elderly and institutions that care for children with syndromes or physical or mental disabilities.

She holds a degree in Psychology from Middlesex Polytechnic in the United Kingdom (1978-1982) and a Master's in Business Administration from the Cyprus International Institute of Management (1995-1997). She trained in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, specialising in Children and Adolescents (1997-2016), in Cyprus and Greece.

She has worked at the Inner London Education Authority, at a school in England. In Cyprus, he worked at an institution for people with intellectual disabilities and, with a scholarship, trained in Chicago at a centre providing programmes for people with special needs.

Professionally, she has many years of administrative and scientific experience in both the public and private sectors. She worked as an Administrative Officer at the Ministry of Finance for almost seven years and dealt with social policy issues.

In 1995, she founded the "Alkyona" Psychological Counseling Center and works as a Counseling Psychologist and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist. She is also a registered Mediator.

She is actively involved in civil society. She was trained in Oslo, Norway, and at George Washington University in conflict resolution and programmes for empowering women in entrepreneurship and leadership.

She considers herself a person with an active political stance and a strong sense of advocacy.

Women's, children's, disabled people's and refugee issues, as well as education, are among her priorities.

In June 2024, she was elected Municipal Councillor in the Municipality of Famagusta as the first VOLT candidate to be elected in Cyprus. In December 2024, she was elected member of the Political Bureau of VOLT Cyprus. She is married with three children and four grandchildren.

Her vision is: A Cyprus that builds bridges instead of walls. A Cyprus within Europe, without dividing lines and occupying troops. A European Cyprus whose only border is the coastline of the entire island.