Scholars

Abdul Sammad was born in Multan, Pakistan. He has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgy & Materials Engineering from Institute of Advanced Materials, BZU, Multan, Pakistan. He has 5 years of experience in oil and gas sector, and community service projects with nonprofit organizations. Passionate about social change, he volunteered as a “Rahbar Mentor” for 4 months in underprivileged areas of Karachi for 4 months. He took on the responsibility to sow the seeds of positivity and inspire youth about the importance of education and creating one’s own destiny without fear. Abdul is also involved with Citizen Foundation as “Baghban Ambassador” to raise funds to support and provide quality education in underprivileged areas of Karachi. He was also part of “Amal Academy”, an education startup funded by Stanford University, which provided him with vocational skills. It was a 3-month fellowship in which he invested 150 hours to develop business skills such as communication, leadership, problem solving and teamwork, etc. Professionally, Abdul works for TUV Rheinland Arabia LLC as a test engineer. Previously, he had also spent two years working for Bureau Veritas Pakistan, a global company that provides a range of sustainability services and solutions. He is interested in bringing about social change in the areas of health, education and sustainable development for the people of Pakistan in line with the UN 2030 agenda.

Abdulsamod Balogun 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.

Abeer Sheikhasan earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Applied to Economics from Birzeit University in Palestine in 2012. Three years later, Abeer earned a Master’s degree in Statistics Applied to Economics from the same university,. She also had the opportunity to experience teaching in a private basic school for about three months, and research assistance in her university for another three months. Immediately after that, she became a government employee at the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics as a statistician, where she currently works. As a government employee at the National Statistical Office of Palestine, she participated in many international training courses: including in Belgium, Turkey, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Japan. She learned intensively in the field of statistical analysis in support of inclusive development policies and price indices, and moderately in data science and big data techniques for official statistics. During her amazing experience in Japan, she learned R programming as a new tool for data analysis and she conveyed that knowledge by conducting several training courses for her colleagues.

Abiodun Emmanuel Ojo is a logistic manager and humanitarian worker with over four years of experience at Doctors Without Borders. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and a Master’s degree in Economics from Belgorod State Technical University. Emmanuel has worked with Doctors Without Borders as Logistic Manager in Haydan, Yemen to run a state hospital and research the challenges of sourcing water and fuel in this remote region. The United Nations constructed a 80KW solar power system and dug a borehole of 380-meter depth for the hospital based on his work. He previously worked for the same organization in Aweil, South Sudan, where he facilitated construction of two hospital buildings and renovated many buildings to enhance the quality of care. Overall, Emmanuel is passionate about using his engineering skills to achieve global health equity.

Aboud J. Al Ifranji has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector and three years of experience in the UNRWA education sector. A.J. earned a Bachelor’s of Teaching English Language from Al Azhar University in Gaza, Palestine. While working as an English teacher in different UNRWA schools, he helped improve his students’ academic achievement in English in prep schools. While working as a Project Coordinator in Japanese Campaign for the Children of Palestine, he helped improve the quality of education in local government schools across different areas in Gaza, Palestine. Through these experiences, he developed strong project coordination, planning, monitoring, implementation, reporting, and evaluation skills. A.J. also honed his abilities to work with computerized and office programs, use cameras for video recording and editing, and facilitate different types of trainings, workshops, and meetings, especially for teachers and school staff members. A.J. is also deeply skilled in translating oral and written English to Arabic, researching, working under pressure, multitasking, and leading teams. Throughout his career, A.J. has developed a wide variety of communication skills, along with best practices in data collection, validation, summary, and analysis. A.J. enjoys focusing on topics of education development, cultural variety, sports, animation, movies, and music, and has a strong passion for self development and youth empowerment.

Adedapo Sijuwade is a social worker with over seven years of experience in humanitarian services, project management & community development. Adedapo has a degree in Sociology and professional courses in humanitarian works. He is particularly attracted to the quest of creating and enabling a safe environment for vulnerable groups. He believes in timely and collective action in response to the plights of marginalized groups, orphans, and vulnerable children to overcome their unpleasant situations through quality intervention, community engagement, and advocacy. He shares the vision of protecting the dignity of human lives and hopes for a just society for all with an emphasis on enhancing the quality of human existence. Adedapo is a social reformer, who is proactive about addressing social issues. His understanding of social issues, such as gender inequality, poverty, child rights, climate change, resulted in numerous achievements among the communities where he worked. He has been involved in various initiatives in his quest to improve the quality of life among vulnerable children to increase school enrollment and retention among teenage girls to avoid teenage pregnancy.

Adriana Benitez holds a professional degree in communication, graduating Summa Cum Laude from Universidad Privada Boliviana (UPB). She has three years of experience in development project management and public policy. She has worked for governmental institutions and international NGOs. In her current position, she has worked with more than five projects managed by organizations such as UNICEF and Oxfam International, supporting the development of strategic plans, gender and child protection policies, and youth empowerment. In her time with state/ public organizations, she has contributed to the development of projects that promote alternative energies in Bolivia. In a cross-cutting manner, she has supported the generation of content and communication strategies in all her jobs. Adriana is also a feminist activist in her community, having been part of collectives that promote women’s rights. She has managed projects to support women who have suffered physical, economic, and psychological violence in her department. She is passionate about gender equality and children’s issues, academic research, and the management of development projects.

Afsheen Fatima is a lecturer from Karachi. She started her career as a Researcher of Political Affairs for Pakistan Television Corporation. Later, Afsheen moved to Turkey to pursue her Master’s degree in South Asian Studies and International Relations at Necmettin Erbakan University under the Türkiye Burslari Scholarship program. After completing her degree, she returned to Pakistan and began teaching various courses in social sciences such as International Relations, World History, and Sociology. In addition to her work at IQRA University she’s also an intern at The Gender Guardian (TGG) NGO. TGG is the first school in Pakistan established specifically to provide vocational training to the marginalized transgender community in Pakistan so that they can earn a respectable living. Her areas of interest include media and politics, identity politics, minority rights, gender issues, and sustainable development. Previously, she worked for the Salman Sufi Foundation as the coordinator for the Women on Wheels project. This project was funded by UNDP and enabled women to learn how to ride motorcycles to improve their freedom of movement. She enjoys participating in youth-related programs and strongly believes that if we equip our youth with the right skills, things will change. In addition to her professional activities, she’s passionate about making organic soaps, learning languages, traveling, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures.