Fellows

Abdulsamod is a communications and marketing professional with over six years of experience leading end-to-end content storytelling and digital marketing (search, social and email) campaigns in the nonprofit, financial services, venture capital and technology sectors in Africa. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and is trained in product marketing and growth marketing by Product Marketing Alliance UK and CXL Institute US respectively. He is the director of partnerships at Vibrant Girls Development Initiative, a social enterprise that has empowered over 300 girls in semiurban areas of Lagos with soft and digital skills, and provided career mentorship to 90 girls. Previously, he was a communications and marketing fellow at VestedWorld, an impact-focused African VC, where he raised newsletter open rate to over 40% and executed content marketing strategies that grew Linkedin followership by 115%, engagement by 1100% and unique visitors by over 70%. He also led communications for Leonine, a financial services firm, where he helped over 20+ social entrepreneurs get investor-ready and raise external capital. He also executed tailored B2B and B2C content marketing strategies that helped increase the firm’s web traffic by 300%, Linkedin page followers by 70%, enterprise client pool by over 60%, training pool by over 150% and originated deals worth over $1million. He is one of 5 Agora Fellows trained in communications by Young Voices UK in 2019 and has coordinated marketing for LEAP Africa SIPA and SocialGood Summit Lagos. Through these experiences, he has developed strong skills in content, digital and event marketing. Abdulsamod enjoys launching initiatives and dissecting issues in youth development, entrepreneurship, gender, and education.

Host Organization: Generation

Role at Host Organization: As a Marketing Operations Fellow, Abdulsamod will support Generation’s global marketing function and initiatives by supporting the rollout of existing and new marketing tools, preparing and analysing data, interacting with the countries in gathering information, monitoring performance, training the teams, and supporting overall marketing activities. The Fellow will also interact with the Generation Digital team in monitoring changes and engagement.

Abid is a mobilization, monitoring and evaluation professional, with five years of experience in the humanitarian and development sector of Pakistan. He holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur Sindh. Currently, he is working with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as a Social Mobilization (Team Lead) and District Focal Person in the Human Security Project, funded by UNTFHS. He is engaged in field operations, implementation, and as a liaison to the government and other stakeholders. He helped more than 2000 male and female farmers gain access to their social rights and maintain good relations with their landowners by signing tenancy agreements, along with economic development through on-farm and off-farm activities. His tenure helped develop his leadership, project management, rapport building and monitoring and evaluation skills. Beyond his skills and professionalism, he is very interested in youth empowerment through education and social entrepreneurship activities. He has voluntarily organized many sessions at schools in his vicinity to raise awareness for future opportunities for youth in education and development sector. Abid is an adventurous person, who loves to explore famous places, cultures, meet different people and learn new languages.

Host Organization: Creative Associates International

Role at Host Organization: Abid will be supporting the Business Intelligence Function with research and analysis of the international development market to help inform strategic decisions. He will be conducting research on Creative’s competitors, partners, clients, and news sites to analyze where the market is and Creative’s advantages and potential opportunities.

Abigail Bokoyeibo has five years of experience as an advocate for women and girls development, renewable energy access, and business development in the nonprofit sector. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. While working as Business Coach and Facilitator at the International Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Bayelsa, Nigeria, she trained students on vocational skills, entrepreneurial skills and business development, and also consulted for the business unit of the Institute. As the Founder and Team Lead of a Nonprofit Young African Women Connect initiative, she developed and led programs that build the capacities of young women on hand skills and empower them through trainings on self-growth, entrepreneurship, business, career, leadership, personal finance, and advocacy. Previously, Abigail worked at Solar Sister as a Business Development Associate, where she recruited, trained and mentored rural women to become energy solution providers and solar entrepreneurs. Through her work, 30 women became active renewable energy advocates and solar entrepreneurs; each making an average of $1,000 annually through her mentorship. Abigail has volunteered in different organizations as a facilitator, youth advocate, and agent of change, including CornerStone Leadership Inspiration Transform foundation, Great Reformers Initiative, and Agent of Change Initiative. Through these experiences, Abigail has developed skills in capacity building, leadership development, business development and project planning and implementation. Abigail is interested in entrepreneurship, leadership, rural energy access, social entrepreneurship, business development, and management.

Host Organization: World Vision US

Role at Host Organization: Abigail will focus on the holistic youth workforce development project model called “Youth Ready: For Work, For Life”. She will particularly work on improving the learning activities and materials that make up the project’s extensive curriculum that focuses on life skills development, livelihood preparation(employability and entrepreneurship), financial education, digital literacy, and citizenship.

Agha Mohsin Ali has been working in the development sector since 2006 with National & International organizations including NRDP, WWOP, Youth in Action, UNDP, BBSA, CPEA Network and SEHER on different management positions. He earned a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Balochistan, Quetta Pakistan. While working with the National Rural Development Programme (NRDP) Pakistan in Islamabad as Manager, Program Planning and Partnership Development, he led overall fundraising, resource mobilization, program research, planning, and program development processes. During 10 years of experience he implemented, coordinated, and developed partnerships with major donor agencies like USAID, DFID, UK-aid, UNICEF, USAID, CIDA, UNICEF, UNDP, USIP and IOM. Agha has had in-depth experience in child rights, education, and youth empowerment in Pakistan. He worked to protect children from abuse, neglect, and exploitation as well as to provide access to education through establishment of child-friendly spaces and temporary learning centers in flood affected areas. He has provided child protection actors opportunity to interact, share their experiences and avoid any duplication of resources through the CPEA Network and 12 larger projects on education, child rights, democracy and nutrition. Over this period, he has developed skills in monitoring and evaluation, program development, program implementation, proposal writing and resource mobilization. He has also written different articles and blogs on child rights and education in different news sites like ARY Blogs, Hamari Web, Duniya News and The Nations News. Agha also participated in different national and international forums like the World Youth Conference, 2010 in Leon City, Mexico, where he was as a delegate.

Host Organization: Creative Associates International

 Role at Host Organization: Agha will be assisting project staff with the development of an indicator database for a new evaluation project with the ExxonMobil Foundation. This project will be assessing the progress of client grantees in women’s economic empowerment on outcome indicators.

Ahmed Fadl is a social entrepreneur from Egypt; he has six years of experience with national and international NGOs in Egypt (Life Makers Foundation, Rotaract, Save the Children, Refuge Egypt, etc.). He has been working on economic development and inclusion programs, serving Refugees, migrants, and Egyptians from vulnerable communities. Ahmed also worked on youth development programs targeting students in different Egyptian universities. He founded iLearn, an educational initiative that aims to raise awareness about online education. In 2016, Ahmed cofounded a FinTech startup, ElGameya, a digital peer-to-peer lending solution through mobile application; he was responsible for the business and financial units at the startup. ElGameya has successfully managed to join four of the biggest startup incubation/acceleration programs in the country. Ahmed interned at Village Capital (a DC-based organization supporting impact driven startups) as part of the Professional Fellows program. Ahmed holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Port Said University; in addition, he has completed extensive online studies in the fields of project management, data analysis and visualization, finance, and development studies. He is interested in music, astronomy, sports, and philosophy.

Host Organization: Village Capital

Role at Host Organization: At Village Capital, Ahmed will serve as the Startup Ecosystem Fellow: supporting Village Capital’s relationship with the IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator with an aim of creating fans and advocates of IBM’s technology and approach with the fintech, health tech, insurtech, and regtech startup communities.

Aida Merabet has over ten years working experience with different nonprofits and corporations in the fields of business empowerment for women and youth educational programs in Algeria. She earned an MBA in Management Marketing from ESG Paris. Aida is the Founder of the social enterprise “Power Harmony Solution.” Previously, Aida worked as the Middle East Partnership (MEPI) Alumni Local Chapter Coordinator, where she strengthened commitment to civic activism, thus creating an environment where alumni can work together to bring positive change to the region. She helped empower young people to work for their economic success as an Education & Training Officer at Injaz El Djazair. As a Hub Manager for the Middle East and North Africa Business Women Network (MENABWN), she was responsible for leading and managing a program to support business women in Algeria. She has also served as an Algerian Country Officer Alwane-Algeria, with Women’s campaign International, an initiative that seeks to empower Algerian women to hold decision-making positions and to enhance their leadership roles so that they can become role models for the region. She also enjoys volunteering, whether it be as the Under Secretary General for Algeria’s national Model United Nations conference or as the Algeria Country Coordinator for the World Peace Initiative Foundation’s Project Peace In and Peace Out (PIPO).

Host Organization: Atlas Corps | American Express

Role at Host Organization: Aida will support the overall strengthening of leadership development in the nonprofit sector through a partnership with American Express. In her role, Aida will help to expand the American Express Leadership Academy franchise. Building on the American Express role in supporting best-in-class leadership practices and capacity building, she will coordinate and grow the alumni network; manage and coordinate the global Alumni Summit, help develop and improve communication and dissemination of best practices and provide overall project support for the Leaderstories.org website.

Aishwarya is a professional with three years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She holds an MBA in Marketing & Biotechnology from the University of Pune and currently works as a consultant with social enterprises and state governments. Her project themes range from education to environment, and her skills include program management, partnership building, training, and facilitation. In her previous role, Aishwarya led successful projects aimed at advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals through global mobility programs. She has also taught over 200 underprivileged children at a government school for two years as a Teach for India Fellow. Furthermore, she has spearheaded mindfulness programs in various organizations and is a Toastmasters International Ambassador, advocating for building leadership through public speaking. Aishwarya’s passion lies in nurturing leadership and empowering individuals towards a more inclusive society.

Host Organization: Northwestern University, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Role at Host Organization: As a Global Engagement Programs Fellow, Aishwarya will play a role in managing global engagement programs at GLO. The Fellowship will have some flexibility based on the Fellows interest and experience—possibilities include assessment, event planning, program/partnership management and development, marketing and recruitment, curriculum development, and alum engagement.

Alaa Saqer is a technology entrepreneur and one of the founding leaders of Gaza’s startup and technology community. An IT graduate from the The Islamic University Of Gaza, Alaa was a winner of Gaza’s first Startup Weekend in 2011 and went on to launch Datrios, a game and social network for sports fans. Datrios was one of the first two startups in Gaza to receive venture capital investment from Oasis500. In 2010, he co-founded Google Developers Group Gaza, a grassroots student organization that trains youth in tech and connects them to Google resources. Alaa previously worked with Nana Direct, a well-known startup company in Saudi Arabia, as their Product Manager and Business Development Manager. Alaa is well-versed in agile product development and has served as a mentor at startup events in Gaza, including the bootcamps at Gaza Sky Geeks. Prior to becoming a tech entrepreneur, he worked for Mercy Corps (the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza after the United Nations) as a program officer, providing psychosocial support to children via sports activities.

Host Organization: Affinis Labs

Role at Host Organization: At Affinis Labs, Alaa will help with the product development lifecycle for various projects at emerging startups and will help Affinis Labs build, cultivate, and strengthen entrepreneurship ecosystems including Minbar.