Identity is paramount to every human being. This is why it is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Every child has the right to know who they are and from where they come. I am an adoptee and I am just one of millions around the world. Our right to understand who we are needs to be protected. Our children and their children deserve to know their origins, too. States and countries around the world, including data protection authorities, need to comply with international standards to preserve our identities and provide full access to our records, also while reestablishing our identities whenever information is missing or falsified. I stand ready with thousands of others to advocate for children and to uphold the right of every person to know who they are.
     Mary Cardaras, Nostos for Greek Adoptees

Dr. Mary Cardaras is a writer, EMMY-award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist who holds a PhD in Public and International Affairs from Northeastern University in Boston. She has been teaching university students since 1991 and is interested in their development as active, interested, curious citizens of their communities and of the world. As founder and director of The Demos Center at The American College of Greece, she is dedicated to government and public policy that serve people, journalism that shines a light in the dark corners of the world, and in the flourishment of art and creativity, which are all hallmarks of free societies. Cardaras is also the Co-Founder and Academic Director of The Kali Polis Project, which pairs students with area municipal governments to work with them on projects that make better cities and towns for their citizens. And finally, Cardaras is one of the “lost children of Greece,” 4,000 of whom were exported from Greece after World War II and the Greek Civil War. She is an activist and fights for open adoption records and supports Greek adoptees in the restoration of their Greek citizenship. Her books, Ripped at the Root (2021) and Voices of the Lost Children of Greece (2023), also address these issues.