Meet The Team

Originally from Zimbabwe, Cecilia Sakatira is the co- Owner and founder of Creative Hands. Her passion and expertise is to aid the spiritual, emotional and physical development of women and families. Since 1998, Cecilia has worked with at-risk women and children on four continents in multiple countries: in Brazil, Tunisia, Morocco, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Greece. She speaks six languages and holds a Master of Arts in Christian Counseling (Vision International University, 2013), as well as several specialized training certificates, including International Human Trafficking (University of San Angelo, 2013), Principles and Practices in Christian Microfinance and Microenterprise Development (Chalmers Center for Economic Development, 2009), Social Education with Children at Risk (Happy Child International, 2003), and Pattern Making and Design (Harare Polytechnic, 2001).

Originally from California, Dustin and Michelle Johnson currently live in Athens, Greece, where they partner with local initiatives to support refugees, immigrants, and communities in transition. Since 2015, they have lived and worked in Europe, first in
Germany and now in Greece, where they focus on mentoring young adults, equipping short-term teams, and collaborating with organizations that provide holistic care for displaced people.
Before moving to Europe, they spent one year in Kenya. During that time, Dustin oversaw the construction of a dormitory at an orphanage, while Michelle homeschooled their children and tutored students at the orphanage. That season shaped their love for cross-cultural work and deepened their commitment to creating spaces where people
can learn, grow, and thrive.​​

Noor is from Syria and came to Greece many years ago with her husband who went back home from Greece to get a bride among his own people. She is a mother of three teenage children, all doing great in Greek schools. We love how over the years God has been leading us to widen our scope of women and hence create a small community within the larger Greek community.

We invited her to come and help us with sewing, she came and has been amazing. She is meticulous in her work and we are very happy to have as part of the Creative Hands team.

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Elisabeth Antonellou is our IT Specialist. She manages our website, social media, newsletters and campaigns.

She was born and raised in the Bahamas from Greek parents who eventually moved back to Greece, where Elisabeth finished Greek school and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems. She has worked  in the fields  of computing and education for the past 15 years and was very excited to be a part of the Creative Hands team, supporting us in any way she can.

Joy is originally from Nigeria and is a single mother to Nicholas. She has been with us since February 2024 and has learned both sewing and weaving but focuses mainly on weaving and has been weaving some of our beautiful rugs in our collection. It was at an Action Aid event that Joy and other participants were being honoured with certificates of attendance and completion of some course. We immediately felt a pull in our hearts for this lovely mother. We invited her to come and visit us at Creative Hands and meet the rest of our team.

We have loved seeing Joy bloom and grow in her new skill and gain confidence in a short period of time and now she is working Monday-Friday from 9:00-3:00pm and we are grateful to God for that. We love Joy and she is a breath of fresh air to all of us at Creative Hands.

Tigist is originally from Ethiopia and the way I met her was truly a God ordained meeting. She is a single mother raising her 5 year old sweet and beautiful girl. It was in August 2024 that I went to visit another Ethiopian family in town, a family that we helped resettle in 2022-2023 after being deported from Sweden. Tigist’s story was a bit similar to the other family’s story and she was also sent back by the Swedish government because they would not renew her documents. She was desperate and did not know what to do. Because of our partnership with other organizations in the greater Athens area working with displaced people we were able to get the renewal of her papers started and also enroll her daughter in a nearby school. She did her training and on the 1st of November we hired her as one of the weavers at Creative Hands and we are very thankful we have her on our team.