Marianna Vardinogianni, an UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and active in many charities, passed away at the age of 80 in Athens on Monday.
She had recently been hospitalized in a private hospital and her health condition had deteriorated to an extreme extent that she was on mechanical support, media report.
Neither her hospitalization nor her health problems were leaked to the press.
Marianna Vardinogianni was a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and an activist for the rights of children and the family and against the sexual abuse of children.
In 2020 she was awarded the Nelson Mandela Prize.
She was also active as: Member of the Board of Directors. of the Library of Alexandria, the International Women’s Movement for Peace, the International Center for Missing and Abused Children (ICMEC), the Mentor Anti-Drug Foundation, Founding Member of the “Light of Africa” Foundation led by His Beatitude Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria, Member of the Presidential Council of “Special Olympics Europe-Eurasia”, etc. .
Marianna Vardinogianni was born in Athens, grew up in Ermioni, western Peloponnese and studied economics at the University of Denver, Colorado.
She was married to businessman Vardis I. Vardinogiannis, president of Motor Oil and shipowner, with whom she had 5 children:
International and national activities
She began her activities as a member of various associations and charities, through which she fought for international peace and global solidarity, although her main concern was the problems of children: health, education, social welfare and poverty, child abuse and exploitation.
She was the Founder and President of the “Foundation for the Child and the Family”, which was renamed the “Marianna V. Vardinogianni Foundation”, and the Association of Friends of Children with Cancer “ELPIDA.” In 2010 she founded the hospital for children with cancer.
More on Marianna Vardinogianni here.
