LGBTQ Issues

Lame is a Social Impact Communications Consultant with six years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned an honors degree in Professional Design (Visual Communication), and a diploma in Graphic design from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, in Botswana. Most recently, Lame worked with Our Solid Roots Association, as a communications consultant, managing the nonprofits internal creative projects including its branding, illustrations and publications. In 2019, he worked with (LEGABIBO) Lesbians Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana as a communications specialist, and designed the Visual brand identity, and the marketing materials for an LGBTQI+ advocacy campaign dubbed “beyond the rainbow.” The campaign was a first of its kind in the country, and its events lead to the government’s decision to decriminalize same sex relationships in Botswana. As the Founder of (WAW) “Who Are We Organization”, a youth arts and sports nonprofit, he developed and led an adolescent-youth sexual, and reproductive health rights workshop to bridge the gap between parent –child communication on issues of Sex and Sexual reproductive health which led to the setup of a youth friendly clinic, improving access to Sexual Reproductive Health services for youth in the community. Lame is passionate about using visual storytelling to advocate and create visibility for marginalized communities, and also hosts an indigenous language promotion podcast called “Ipelele Ngwao”, which focuses on preserving the diverse intangible heritage in Botswana. Through these experiences, Lame has gained strong project planning, storytelling, and campaign management skills.

Host Organization: Open Contracting Partnership

Role at Host Organization: As a Digital Strategist and Content Fellow, Lame will leverage all digital channels—social media, the website, newsletters and email campaigns—to engage existing and new audiences. Lame will also write, edit, and produce original OCP content that is compelling, smart, and clear. The Fellow will also manage OCP’s website and coordinate the day-to-day communication stream including social media. Lastly, Lame will help educate editors and journalists around the world as to why the trillion-dollar world of contracting and procurement matters so much for public integrity, markets, and development.

Willy Pedroso Aguiar has seven years of experience as an environmental activist, specialist in communication for development and social change (C4D), and researcher on inequalities and information poverty. He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science, both at the University of Havana (UH). He also completed a Master’s in Latin American Studies at University College London. He has worked as an advocacy and actor articulation specialist, a C4D officer in international campaigns and projects, and has also been a researcher and data analyst. In addition, Willy has extensive experience in causes such as climate change, land degradation, ecosystem conservation, disaster risk management, and clean energy. Willy is very interested in continuing to work on environmental problems, especially climate change, which strongly affects small island states like his country.

Willy has seven years of experience as an environmental activist, specialist in communication for development and social change (C4D), and researcher on inequalities and information poverty. He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science, both at the University of Havana (UH). He also completed a Master’s in Latin American Studies at University College London. He has worked as an advocacy and actor articulation specialist, a C4D officer in international campaigns and projects, and has also been a researcher and data analyst. In addition, Willy has extensive experience in causes such as climate change, land degradation, ecosystem conservation, disaster risk management, and clean energy. Willy is very interested in continuing to work on environmental problems, especially climate change, which strongly affects small island states like his country.

Host Organization: Generation

Role at Host Organization: As the External Relations Fellow, Willy will shadow external relations meetings and activities and begin to play a key supporter role in external relations planning and research. The Fellow will develop expertise in the various tools and measures for these activities. Willy will also work closely with senior staff to develop and execute external communications plans, develop writing skills in creating external content, and shepherd external opportunities (media and/or event) to fruition. The Fellow will understand the global/affiliate model Generation uses, and develop toolkits that can support affiliate communications.

Tafadzwa has six years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He holds an MSc International Relations degree from the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, and a BSc in Media and Society Studies from the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. He is a YALI Regional Leadership Center Southern Africa alumnus. Tafadzwa is an Operations Manager at Bayethe Development Institute, an SRHR and economic empowerment organization in Zimbabwe. He is a transformational leader and social change agent who believes in turning his vision into reality through strategic alliances and coordinated action. He is responsible for initiating and developing clear, concise proposals, grant writing, and implementing fundraising activities, donor cultivation, and stewardship. He has managed to raise US$ 800,000 from 2017 to date on advancement of SRHR access for young people, economic empowerment of LBTQI people, and child rights programming. He researches, writes, and edits time-sensitive program documents, budgets, activity reports, and cultivates relationships, including communicating with relevant local partners, stakeholders, and donors. Among the various duties in this portfolio is working in concert with the finance and administration team to oversee grant management, draft budgets, and disbursement of funds, including monitoring budgets and expenditures. Tafadzwa worked for the Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC), a child rights coordinating and umbrella body in Zimbabwe as an Advocacy and Communications Officer. He organized and coordinated child rights actors and led successful advocacy and lobbying activities, chief among them establishment of the Parliament Caucus on Child Rights in 2020.

Host Organization: One to World

Role at Host Organization: As a Fundraising Fellow, Tafadzwa will help implement strategies to meet the organization’s annual fundraising goals, working closely with One To World’s Executive Director, Director of Development, consultants, and Board of Directors. The Fellow will support all functions of the Development department, including gift processing, management of donor data, special events planning and execution, cultivation and stewardship of donors, and private grant prospecting, writing, and reporting. Tafadzwa is a vital piece of a small team that generates revenue to support the organization’s direct services for K-12 youth and international scholars, and will contribute to meeting a fundraising goal of almost $1 million a year.

Pragati Singh has over nine years of experience in the fields of public health, gender, and sexual and reproductive rights. She earned a MBBS degree from Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi University, in 2012, followed by a diploma in organizational leadership from Swedish Institute, Stockholm, in 2018. For her recent project with The Girl Effect, she developed a series of educational videos on sexual and reproductive health & rights for young Indian girls. As Learning & Training Fellow with Girl Up, Pragati’s responsibilities include identification, adaptation, and development of learning and advocacy resources on sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice (SRHRJ) for Girl Up’s youth members, as well as the building out of Girl Up’s learning and advocacy resources and engagement strategy for LGBTQI+ youth. Pragati also supports a variety of other work that the Girl Up team does, such as outreach to increase and measure the impact of Girl Up’s curriculum, “Let’s Talk About Gender-based Violence: Building Awareness and Solidarity.” Her roles have involved advocating for policy change, liaison and partnership building, data interpretation, capacity building, and program management. Pragati has gained hands-on skills in project management, grant management, business development, conference organizing, partnership building, community building, and communications and marketing. She received a number of awards for her visionary leadership, and was recognized by the BBC as one of the world’s hundred most influential, inspiring, and innovative women in 2019.

Host Organization: Girl Up

Role at Host Organization: As the SRHRJ Global Strategy Fellow, Pragati will work closely with the Training & Learning Team at Girl Up to identify, adapt, and develop learning and advocacy resources on sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice for Girl Up’s youth members. The Fellow will also build out Girl Up’s learning and advocacy resources and engagement strategy for LGBTQI+ youth and support ongoing outreach to increase and measure the impact of Girl Up’s curriculum. Additionally, the Fellow will support the development of Girl Up’s programming on mental health and wellness and support the team with planning for in-person engagement.

Weamie Tahn is a graduate of a master’s degree program in Finance at the Cuttington University School of Graduate and Professional Studies in Liberia. He is a grant management and compliance professional with ten years of experience. He currently works for Partners in Health (PIH), an international nonprofit organization that provides life-saving health care to people in the Global South. As Grants and Compliance Manager, he has spent the last four years helping the Ministry of Health improve the health system in Liberia by managing more than ten public sector grants. He promotes and ensures compliance with internal policies and donor regulations. Previously, he has worked for various international organizations such as Development Alternative Inc. (DAI), Mercy Corps, and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) as Senior Grants Officer, Subawards & Compliance Officer, and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, respectively. Weamie is passionate about mentoring and building capacity for grants management for nonprofits and civil society organizations so that their projects benefit historically marginalized communities. He has found his professional calling in training, developing, and managing long-term, impact-oriented projects.

Ilektra Antonatou studied International Relations and Organizations at the Aegean University, and later earned a master’s degree in Geopolitical Analysis and International Security at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has six years of experience in the nonprofit sector and currently works as a Project Manager in the Interpretation Department of the Greek nonprofit organization METAdrasi – Action for Migration and Development. In her capacity, she ensures the provision of interpretation services to agencies, organizations, embassies and NGOs dealing with refugees and migrant populations. Key skills she has developed through her work include implementation and monitoring, as well as evaluation and reporting. Previously, she worked with projects supporting unaccompanied minors in Greece.

Marcos Melo works as Campaigns Manager at All Out, a global movement for the rights of LGBT+ people, and has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He has interned in seven different public agencies, enabling him to improve his knowledge in different areas and to be invited to the position of Legal Advisor at the Federal Prosecutor Service, where he worked for five years on environmental and anti-corruption defense. He is the Co-Founder, President, and Communications Director of Actum Brazil, an organization focused on fighting regional inequalities, developing, and empowering young people in the Amazon region. Marcos works continuously on human rights and social inclusion issues, having represented Brazil as a Global Ambassador of Youth Opportunities, one of the largest platforms with free access to international opportunities for young people. He has since become one of the organization’s Regional Coordinators, and he coordinates 14 young leaders from Latin America.

Masthuriyah Sa’dan is originally from Sumenep Madura and now she stays in Yogyakarta Indonesia. Since childhood, she studied in an Islamic education institution from primary school until university. Ria was studied at Al-Amin Islamic boarding school in Madura, where she learned Arabic and English from Islamic boarding school. She graduated Bachelor’s degree in Theology and Philosophy. Later, she continued her postgraduate study at Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University in the Islamic Philosophy department. She graduates with a Master’s in Islamic Philosophy. After her Master’s degree, she teaches in the Sains and Technology faculty in Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University about spirituality in Islam. During her activity, she was writing, researching, and following academic forums from the national level until the international level to present her papers. She also works in a research institution with funding from USAID, all of her research project with USAID is about women and gender in Islam. Meanwhile, every weekend she helping the marginal community in Yogyakarta. She teaching about reading the holy Qur’an in the Transgender Islamic boarding school, and all the students are transgender Muslim community. Recently, she published a book about Santri Waria (transgender Islamic students). The substantive of this book is her notes with LGBT groups who learning Islam in the transgender Islamic boarding school in Yogyakarta.

Awais Farooq is a marketing professional with an avid belief in the power of love and empathy to connect with people. Awais has 4 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. After he earned his MBA, he worked at a Stanford-funded education and leadership startup called Amal Academy, helping fresh graduates be the best versions of themselves through soft skill development and self-discovery. Awais is passionate about and skilled in a wide range of areas, including outreach and marketing, tech management, professional development, curriculum design, program management, and counseling. He cares about working for a cause bigger than himself. Other than Amal Academy, Awais has taken part in Seth Godin’s Marketing Seminar and the altMBA programs to develop better empathy for his team and his approach to work. These experiences have helped him appreciate the exposure that humans can provide each other and have inspired him to become an Atlas Corps Fellow. He enjoys working in education, youth empowerment, and social awareness and has an overwhelming passion for social inclusion. Awais loves humans and hopes to connect with some amazing humans through his Atlas Corps fellowship.

Host Organization: American Red Cross

Role at Host Organization: At the American Red Cross, Awais will serve as the International Response Knowledge Management & Learning Fellow: supporting the Knowledge Management and Learning efforts for response operations and readiness activities to facilitate access to, utilization of, and learning from existing data, evidence, and knowledge generated from past operations both within the American Red Cross and with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Partners.

Jillani has an extensive eight years of experience in the development sector in Pakistan. He earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He has excellent skills and competencies in the areas of project management, administration, logistics control, and monitoring & evaluation. Being a development practitioner, Jillani has undertaken several projects related to community development, public health, youth development, sexual reproductive health and rights, community health centers, and women’s empowerment. He is an active team player and proactively supports and facilitates teamwork in his daily life.

Host Organization: Venture Philanthropy Partners

Role at Venture Philanthropy PartnersAt Venture Philanthropy Partners, Jillani will serve as an Operations Analyst Fellow; designing and executing program management processes for both specific projects and for organization wide activities, along with ensuring organizational priorities and associated activities are moving by playing an integral role in monitoring work across the organization.

João Fernandes is a young Brazilian professional with three years of experience both in the nonprofit sector and in the internationalization of higher education. He actively collaborated on the implementation of a mailing office in a local community not reached by this public service, delivering dignity and equality throughout the neighborhood, more than just mail. With hands-on work, João is acting as a fundraiser for the “Happy Postman” project that aims to alleviate poverty in his city through donations of food, clothes, and toys. He increased his sense of solidarity, determination, and, above all, the certainty that this is his greatest personal achievement. João also has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and an MBA in Strategic Business Management. In the area of Higher Education, he has been responsible for the internationalization of the students’ experience, through mobility and non-mobility academic programs, and contributing on the improvement of the Continuing Education sub-areas such as Post-graduate, Research, Extension, Language, Student committees and Employability. Able to balance multiple competing priorities, demonstrating a natural aptitude for interacting with people and providing service with a smile.
João is passionate about democracy, multiculturalism and social development.

Host Organization: Laureate

Role at Laureate: At Laureate, João will reimagine and relaunch the organization’s Student Ambassador program, facilitating greater visibility for their 875,000 students. He will seek student input into policy and thought leadership initiatives, assist across a range of communications relate activities, and provide project management, event, and translation support.