Fellows

Ahmed is an accomplished development professional with more than five years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and sociology from Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone). Like most young Sierra Leonean who envisaged abject poverty and devastation caused by the ten year senseless civil war in Sierra Leone, Ahmed did not confine himself in that situation but rather rose beyond it to make life better for himself and his compatriots mostly in need; some of whom are women and children suffering from sexual and gender based violence, youths whose livelihoods are shattered and pregnant women and mothers in need of sufficient healthcare. Ahmed joined BRAC Sierra Leone as a Young professional in November 2013 and through this appointment, he has been able to provide quality data on development that have been used by BRAC to solve problem of essential healthcare, malnutrition, gender based violence, access to finance etc. As a monitoring manger in BRAC, Ahmed successfully implemented and managed a strong monitoring & evaluation systems of large scale projects for BRAC Sierra Leone. Ahmed also immensely contributed to providing legal aid services to more than 2000 poor and marginalized women and children who suffered various forms of gender based violence, whilst leading BRAC’s human right and legal empowerment team in 2014. During this time, the Ebola Epidemic had broken out so he had to help BRAC management to design a project that caters for the right of quarantined individuals, households and communities badly affected. Ahmed raised around 70,000 (USD) from Trocaire/DFID to provide food and non food items to particularly quarantined households in 50 communities. In addition, Ahmed also facilitated social mobilization activities and psycho social supports to these communities, thereby helping them to deal with the unprecedented crisis.

Host Organization: Sheltering Arms

Role at Host Organization:
Ahmed will be tasked with collecting, compiling, and analyzing programmatic data with a lens towards outcome study, development and implementation. Working in conjunction with QI and programs, Ahmed will develop new ways to capture outcomes with a focus on innovative ways to measure service results and report out on findings.

Aziz Ullah has four year of experience in learning and development, entrepreneurship, business development and public speaking; working with non-profit and for profit both in private and public sector. He earned an MBA from National University of Modern Languages Pakistan, and B.Sc Civil Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar Pakistan. He is a certified trainer from School of Leadership Pakistan and has earned multiple
national and international certifications. As an Acumen fellow Pakistan, he is working on creating sustainable solutions to enable the graduates from unprivileged areas receive training, improve their entrepreneurial and employability skills to be socially and economically stable and live a better life. Aziz has for four years of experience as a Co-Founder and CEO for the Center for Awareness Training and Development Pakistan, which is a training and management consultancy working with public and private sector to develop market needs based skills in individuals and employees, promote entrepreneurship and build capacity of startups and entrepreneurs, and fill the skill gap between job sector and academia. As a trainer, learning and development profession, he helps people and organizations reach their goals and perform with greater impact. Aziz Ullah facilitates learning programs nationally and internationally for corporate, nonprofits, academia and youth to enrich their leadership values, employee efficiency, team performance and creativity and entrepreneurship skills. He has designed and delivered
professional training modules & courses for 30 + local, national and international organizations during the past four years and has facilitated more than two hundreds learning programs, workshops and training conferences. Aziz has akeen interest is working with non-profit and for profit sector on promoting and developing entrepreneurial ecosystem, capacity building of graduates, startups, entrepreneurs and employees to help organization and individual be more effective, more efficient and more productive in creating greater impact with the work they do.

Host Organization: The Resolution Project

Role at Host Organization: Aziz will learn about and map Resolution’s 100 existing social entrepreneurship ecosystem partners (known as Pathway Partners) and plan a new activation framework for Pathway Partners through a public-facing online platform.

Christine has an Executive Masters in Development Policies and Practices from the Graduate Institute Geneva, a BSc. Computer Science from Catholic University of Eastern Africa, and close to eight years’ experience in both the private and the nonprofit sectors. Her ability to adapt and respond to emerging challenges, and embrace daunting learning opportunities, facilitated her transition from a career in banking to a career in international development. Her most recent experience was working as a Research and Policy Officer for the multi-agency $31 million Strengthening Education Systems in East Africa Project at Aga Khan Foundation, East Africa. In this position, she lead the Learning and Dialogue component and use evidence generated through targeted research initiatives to engage government authorities and other key actors. One of her notable accomplishments was leading the planning and execution of two major regional stakeholder events in Kenya and Uganda which allowed policymakers and practitioners to make evidence-based decisions on education reforms. Christine has excellent relationship and coordination skills and is passionate about making a difference in the lives of people, especially the marginalized or less privileged. She desires to grow as a leader and a change agent in Africa.

Host Organization: BronxWorks

Role at Host Organization: Christine will act as the Executive Coordinator provide a variety of executive, administrative, and strategic support to the Executive Director, members of the Executive Team, and Senior Program Leadership of a large social services agency serving communities of the South Bronx. She will act as liaison to multiple organizational structures and coordinate special projects and events.

Clara has seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance, Accounting and Management from the University of Nottingham funded by a scholarship under the Star Education Fund. While working at Generasi Gemilang Foundation (GG), Clara led a team on a collaborative project with the local Corporate Responsibility Department of an international financial institution. She was involved in developing a plan to provide access to basic financial protection for the urban poor. Clara also trained children and youth to manage their finances wisely through financial education programs run in schools and communities across Malaysia. As part of the deployment of this project, she worked closely with relevant government departments, regulators, and nonprofit organizations to maximize results. Prior to that, Clara managed GG’s volunteer group, built the volunteering structure and mobilized hundreds of volunteers to serve the community. Through these experiences, she developed strong project management and implementation, leadership and presentation skills. Clara is passionate about increasing the financial inclusion of the poor and in partnering with companies to meet the needs of underprivileged communities through their corporate responsibility initiatives.

Host Organization: Center for Asia Leadership Initiatives – Atlas Corps Malaysia

Giana is a hands-on professional with 8+ years experience working with Communications and Project Management in Social Sector organizations from Brazil, U.S. and Spain. Giana holds a Bachelor degree in Social Communications from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (Brazil) and a Post Certificate Course degree in Social Innovation Management, from Amani Institute. Giana is currently studying a Master in Strategy and Technology for Development at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and working as project manager at Fundación Tomillo (Madrid). While Brazil is her home, she has been living for the past year in Spain and has lived for some time in Bolivia while volunteering at Proyecto Martadero. Giana was as a scout team leader, president of AIESEC in Curitiba (Brazil) and had volunteered in other various NGOs. On a professional level, she has worked on social impact projects in different sectors: at a multinational company, a governmental organization, a non-profit foundation and a social enterprise. Giana has experience working as ‘intrapreneur’ twice: when implemented the Social Franchise ‘Projeto Pescar’ at the multinational company Dixie Toga S.A. and when implemented the initiative ‘Estudar Fora’ at Fundação Estudar, one of the main non-profit foundations that support Brazilian youth in their education. Her interests are related to Education, Social Innovation and Sustainability and her way of working is based on a mixture of empathy, action, and strategic thinking. See more at www.gianaandonini.com

Host Organization: Women’s Alliance for Knowledge Exchange

Role at Host Organization: Giana will work as a Strategic Planning & Marketing Fellow to contribute to the development of essential marketing materials and marketing campaigns that will help WAKE achieve organizational sustainability, partnership development, outreach and impact.

Ishaq has over five years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned two Master’s of Science degrees in Project Management and Applied Statistics from the University of Management and Technology in Pakistan. He earned a Rector’s Award for scoring four out of four GPA during his MS in Applied Statistics. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Statistics from Government College University in Lahore, Pakistan with a Gold Medal for securing first position in the class. While working as a Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst with Chemonics International Inc. in Pakistan under the USAID-funded Punjab Enabling Environment Project for more than two years, he worked to measure the impact of policy interventions made for the economic growth in the Agribusiness sector of Punjab. Ishaq has also worked with USAID funded Pakistan Firms Project implemented by Chemonics International Inc. as Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for more than two years that focused on accelerating sales and creating jobs in the targeted value chains of Agriculture and Industry sectors. Through these experiences, he developed strong monitoring and evaluation, project management and data analysis skills. Ishaq enjoys focusing on the areas of economic growth, women empowerment and gender equality, and has a strong passion for human and institutional capacity development initiatives.

Host Organization: SEED SPOT

Role at Host Organization: Ishaq will help design, collect, and track SEED SPOT measuring and evaluation work enabling more accurate and up to date data. Working with High Schools and SEED SPOT Communities across the country, he will help develop new modules and curriculum for Schools and Communities programs.

Mahak has five years of experience in engaging talent for sustainable organizational performance through capacity building initiatives focused on women and youth empowerment for energy and financial sector of Pakistan. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration from the National University of Computers and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad. At USAID-Training for Pakistan Project, she worked on capacity building needs assessments to highlight technical areas which will contribute towards new global practices, challenges and developmental needs in line with Pakistan’s regional pacts. She successfully initiated and implemented 18 training programs focusing on financial management, cyber security, leadership and communication to achieve international best practices for sustainable organizational development. She has worked closely with young leaders from energy and financial sectors to enhance their capacities in areas promoting innovation to help strengthen long-term results. During the implementation of training programs, she also facilitated successful implementation of two courses by USACE for climate and water experts resulting in introduction of new simulation tools for effective management of the overall Indus River Basin. She also worked with ITCILO in organizing a Works Procurement Management course based on Pakistani needs which was later introduced as a regular course at Pakistan Audit and Accounts Academy, Lahore. Previously in 2013, she implemented a nation-wide USAID-Energy Internship Program for youth belonging from underdeveloped areas of Pakistan and it successfully increased women participation from 2% to 9% at Thermal and Hydro Power Plants of Pakistan. The program helped her draft the Gender Strategy for ministries of Pakistan; strategy detailed inclusion of more women in the energy sector in technical areas. She has been voluntarily working with a postpartum self-help group for endorsing mother-child health awareness campaign. All these experiences have developed her working knowledge in program development and implementation, stakeholder liaison and strategic planning for effective project management

Host Organization: Teach For All

Role at Host Organization: Mahak will play a key role in helping build an influential network of champions for the MENA region (Middle East, North Africa) and provide critical behind the scenes support to early stage entrepreneurs seeking to join the Teach For All network.

Muhammad has five years of experience mostly in education sector specifically Technical and Vocational education. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and a Master’s degree in Marketing from Lahore School of Economics and Bachelor’s of Law LLB from University of the Punjab. He has been appointed as a CEO of City and Guilds International in Pakistan. While working at C&G International as a Quality Assurance Manager he has successfully managed to implement the best quality and compliance practices, which has elevated the brand reputation of the organization in Pakistan, and a program of 3000 students, 15 Master trainers of Culinary Arts and Patisserie Qualification was agreed between the Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority Punjab for one year. Previously, he has worked with Information Technology University, Punjab as an Outreach and Linkages Associate and helped the technical team to develop an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to find jobs for marginalized people and post jobs by the industries, it was backed by a research at the grass root level and a baseline survey. Also, during his job he has disbursed vouchers to Training Service Providers (TSPs) and apprentices for apprenticeship training to 1300 trainees over six months period. He has also worked at USAID Chemonics International at Procurement Department and developed robust procurement skills during 6 months period. During his work he has experienced following issues in the country; lack of skilled education, poverty, hunger, homelessness, women empowerment, youth development. Through his experiences, Abdullah has established a strong implementation and coordination skills, training and development, education management, marketing, business development, communication skills and outreach and creating linkages skills. He is passionate to work for skills development and encourage people to develop skills for themselves, businesses and eventually for the economy.

Host Organization: Bronxworks

Role at Host Organization: Muhammad will act as the CQI Coordinator and will be responsible for tracking and assuring that business transactions are properly supported and recorded for various regulatory requirements. He will will work with the CQI team to understand key performance indicators and program metrics, conduct internal program audits, and present metric reports at inter-agency and internal meetings.