Our Story
Cyprus Girls Can was founded by Natalie Christopher. Natalie grew up in the UK and at the age of 12 she started running thanks to her Sports Teacher at school. This changed her life as it was something she trully enjoyed and she continued representing the track teams of her schools and later during her studies.
When she moved back to Cyprus in her adult life she noticed that not a lot of women were active in sports abd there weren't a lot of ladies participating in the sport clubs tha Natalie joined. She was puzzeled by this fact and she tried to pinpoint the reasons why this was the case. She identified some barriers she thought could be responsible for the situation such as cost, lack of information, low confidence, negative mindset, societal stereotypes. Natalie then decided to act upon her findings and create a campaign inspired by the UK campaign 'This Girl Can', in order to remove those barriers and help women become more active and involved in sport. With the help of her good friend Nazo, Natalie created Cyprus Girl Can and organized the first Open Day Sport Events in September 2017.
Natalie was an Astrophysicist and an active sportswoman, well known for her peace activism and campaigns for the greater representation of women in scientific fields and sport. She held numerous talks on related issues, such as gender equality, women and youth in sport and peacebuilding. She was involved in numerous bicommunal projects which were promoting collaboration between Cyprus's different communities, using sports, astronomy and art as tools to bring people together.
We lost our beloved Natalie in an accident in August 2019 but she left a great legacy behind to us. Her charisma has inspired and given us strength to continue running this campaign she was so passionate about. A group of volunteers and friends of Natalie and Cyprus Girls Can joined forces for the continuaty of her work and vision. We believe that she is always here with us supporting the cause.
CYPRUS GIRLS CAN runs entirely on a volunteer basis.
An enthusiastic group of volunteers from all over Cyprus share some of their
spare time and skills to run the CYPRUS GIRLS CAN campaign!
