Mary Pyrgos

Co-Ordinator of Cyprus Platform of Gender Budgeting

Mary Pyrgos studied physiotherapy in Glasgow(MCSP) following that she studied French history and literature, Law for 2 years at the University of London as an external student, she acquired a Masters Degree in environmental auditing from the University of Aberystwith, Wales, a diploma in mediation and she is a trainer on corruption, violence in the family and gender budgeting. She is currently a Public Affairs Consultant.
Mary Pyrgos founded many non-governmental organizations and was President in a number of them for many years. In 1978 she founded the movement Equal Rights - Equal responsibilities and soon after the Crisis Centre, and the Association for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (SPAVO). She served as president of the Cyprus committee for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women, and she is also the founder and the President of the Lobbyists and Public Affairs Association (LPAP) and the research foundation FIMONOI, which is currently running a campaign for zero tolerance on corruption, reform of educational system, reform of the institutions and leads a campaign for the incorporation of Gender budgeting in the Budget of the Government. She is the country editor of Cyprus at the Whistleblowers International network. She was very active in the preparation of the legislation on Whistleblowers, on the Authority against Corruption and the legislation on the regulation of lobbying in Cyprus. She was also appointed by the President as member of the consultative committee against corruption. In 1985 she was an honorary candidate for the parliamentary elections.
She is a socio-historical researcher and author of the sociohistorical books, Matriarchy Patriarchy, The Cypriot Woman at a glance, H KYPRIA(the Cypriot Woman), a global research Violence in the family and the historical book, Princess Anne of Cyprus. She is also the editor of the online newspaper “i-apopsimas”