Scholars

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.

Agha-Nwi Fru is a communication and program management professional currently serving as Communications Expert for the United Nations Populations Fund in the conflict stricken North West and South West Regions of Cameroon. She is a founder of the non-profit organization Association Sembe which highlights community stories from Cameroon’s conflict stricken regions, especially the Boko Haram crisis in the Far North Region of the country. Prior to this, she worked as a Database and Reporting Officer on a USAID-funded program implemented by Creative Associates International to support stabilization efforts in remote communities along the Cameroon-Nigeria border which were destabilized by the Boko Haram insurgency. Before, Agha-Nwi worked on another USAID-funded program dubbed the Cameroon Peace Promotion Program implemented by Equal Access International in the North and Far North Regions of Cameroon. Here, she was the lead Producer on a team that produced radio broadcasts about peace and social cohesion. Before working on peace building projects, Agha-Nwi worked as a journalist for seven years. She holds a Master’s degree in Project Management from the Social Change School in Madrid, Spain, and another Master’s degree in Organizational Communication from the University of Douala, Cameroon. Agha-Nwi enjoys engaging in peace and resilience building activities at the root level and is highly passionate about women and youth empowerment. Her goal is to help people, especially vulnerable groups like women and youth in conflict-stricken communities, to tell the stories that are important to them, and she hopes to achieve this through the Sembe project. She currently resides in Buea, Cameroon and loves to share a good laugh with her entourage.

Agnija Kazuša has seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Master’s of Science in Communication from the University of Latvia. While working as a referee at Riga Social Service, Agnija helped more than 150 foreign residents in Latvia prepare documents for receiving crisis benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Agnija worked as a content creator and editor for the World Peace Initiative Foundation and Peace Revolution project for three years to help raise awareness of mental health, mindfulness, and meditation. In this role, Agnija managed the Peace Blog and edited more than 500 articles; helped to create video stories; conducted Facebook Live interviews with peacebuilders from all over the world; organized more than 200 mindfulness activities in Europe, Asia and the Pacific; and provided coaching to 183 individuals on Peace Revolution’s online self-development platform. Agnija has volunteered as a facilitator and project coordinator with several youth organizations, including Lielvarde Youth Organization, European Students’ Forum AEGEE, AIESEC, Make Room, and FEJS (Forum for European Journalism Students) Latvia, which she co-founded. Through these experiences, she developed content creation, project coordination, and implementation skills. Agnija enjoys focusing on the topics of mental health and education and has a strong passion for social inclusion.Agnija Kazuša has seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Master’s of Science in Communication from the University of Latvia. While working as a referee at Riga Social Service, Agnija helped more than 150 foreign residents in Latvia prepare documents for receiving crisis benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Agnija worked as a content creator and editor for the World Peace Initiative Foundation and Peace Revolution project for three years to help raise awareness of mental health, mindfulness, and meditation. In this role, Agnija managed the Peace Blog and edited more than 500 articles; helped to create video stories; conducted Facebook Live interviews with peacebuilders from all over the world; organized more than 200 mindfulness activities in Europe, Asia and the Pacific; and provided coaching to 183 individuals on Peace Revolution’s online self-development platform. Agnija has volunteered as a facilitator and project coordinator with several youth organizations, including Lielvarde Youth Organization, European Students’ Forum AEGEE, AIESEC, Make Room, and FEJS (Forum for European Journalism Students) Latvia, which she co-founded. Through these experiences, she developed content creation, project coordination, and implementation skills. Agnija enjoys focusing on the topics of mental health and education and has a strong passion for social inclusion.

Ahmidu Barrie has over ten years of experience in non-profit administration, logistics, and management. Ahmidu earned his first degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone in 2010 and later pursued his post-graduate degree in public administration at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM). His drive to help his country comes from seeing his parents work very hard to take care of their family, as well as his experience of being abducted and forced to be a child soldier during his country’s civil war. After working with Wellbody Alliance, a local NGO that helped care for amputees and others with war wounds, he knew his life’s work was to help the poorest of the poor. He established the Community Health Worker Program, which brought care to the doorsteps of people living with HIV and TB across Kono District. When Ebola came to Sierra Leone in 2014, Partners In Health began working with Wellbody, and they eventually merged. During this time, as lead Logistician, Ahmidu was tasked with creating Ebola care and treatment centers across two districts. Currently, as Chief Operating Officer for Partners In Health Sierra Leone, Ahmidu is helping shepherd the development of the Maternal Center of Excellence, which aims to improve health outcomes for women in a country with one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. Ahmidu is eager to learn from the experiences of his colleagues and hopes that sharing his experience in health systems strengthening in low-resource settings will be of use to others. The skills and training that he hopes to acquire will enable him to improve his capacities as a leader and be an even stronger advocate of social justice, health equity, and education.

Aikande Robert Nkya has seven years of experience in non-governmental organizations focusing on empowering Tanzanian youth, particularly women and girls. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Community Economic Development from Moshi Cooperative University. Her current role is as the Kisa Program Manager for AfricAid, which was transformed into Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiatives. GLAMI provided leadership and life skills classes to 6,000 secondary school girls in Arusha and Kilimanjaro in 2020. She has extensive experience with fundraising and event planning and recently started an NGO, Nguzo Women and Youth Foundation, where she is the Associate Executive Director. The NGO imparts knowledge, specifically on reproductive health, counseling sessions, and entrepreneurial information, to boys and girls who are both in school and out of school. The goal is to improve primary school performance and access to economic opportunities. Her other non-profit experience includes serving as a Board Member for multiple NGOs in Kilimanjaro, working for Time to Empower Africa’s Children (now called Anza), and holding a role in program coordination at Training for Life, where she oversaw the residential program for youths. She is a Mama Hope International Organization East Africa Global Advocate Alumna, where she presented at its Alumni Conference in San Francisco, CA.

Ainemagara Isa is from Kampala, Uganda. He is a graduate of Agriculture from Makerere University and pursuing a Master’s degree in Agribusiness. He has 10 years of experience in local economic development. Ainemagara currently works with Heifer International where he provides leadership to a consortium project titled “Learn for Agribusiness Project” implemented in partnership with Edukans. Under this project, he has established farmer institutions that enable 3,200 farmers and 7200 secondary beneficiaries to receive critical services and inputs for sustainable development. He previously worked with Edukans where he led the agri-skills program, bridging employment opportunities for out-of-school youth through designing curricula and training programs. He worked with Alliance One Uganda as an Extension Technician where he led the company’s technical skilling program. Isa built the capacity of 800 farmers enabling the company to achieve its business targets. He worked with World Vision Uganda as a Market Facilitator where through his engagement skills, 4000 smallholder farmers accessed markets with Aponye (U) Ltd among other services. He worked with Excel Hort Consult as a Value Chain Specialist where he helped the organization invest in relevant value chains through conducting informative analyses and capacity building of its staff and partners in Uganda and East Africa. Ainemagara is passionate about sustainable environmental development and youth business inclusion. He is a member of several platforms such as Agri-Pro Focus, Youth and Agro-Ecology Business and Learning Track in Africa, as well as Markets in Crises under the SEEP network.

Alexander Gunkel is a serial entrepreneur using space technology for social and environmental good. Alexander’s company Space4Good leverages satellite earth observation, geographic information systems, and artificial intelligence to provide geospatial analytics to global impact initiatives for data-driven decision making and increased transparency. The company is active in nature conservation, agriculture, smart cities, disaster relief, and peace and justice. Space4Good provides its insights to clients such as The Red Cross, The World Bank Group, The Carter Center, and The European Commission. Additionally, Alexander co-founded Skytree, which invented a CO2 recycling process to reduce global CO2 emissions, as well as RoadEO which is developing a global road quality monitoring and prediction platform to improve road safety and comfort. He is actively mentoring “Tech4Good” entrepreneurs in university-related incubators as well as accelerators, including in Startupbootcamp and Google LaunchPad. Before starting his entrepreneurial career, Alexander studied mechanical engineering and business administration and worked as a Project Manager at the European Space Agency. He is a Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and believes in the power of social entrepreneurship to drive positive societal and economic change.