Scholars

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.

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.

Amos KLA is from Cote d’Ivoire and is a training Computer Application Developer. He is in the process of obtaining his Executive Master’s degree in Engineering Option Data. He has four years of experience in Information Technology, including at an international recruitment firm Empower Talents & Careers in Ivory Coast, where he helped street musicians to live off their talents with his Ivoireflow music promotion platform. As an IT developer, he was involved in the entire IT project cycle: design, production, and maintenance. He is currently IT Manager in this recruitment firm. Through these experiences, he developed many qualities such as rigor, professionalism, sense of organization, and adaptability, as well as strong project coordination and implementation skills. He enjoys focusing on the topics of culture and technology, and has a strong passion for youth empowerment. He was laureate of AYADA Lab, which is a Franco-German incubation program carried by the French Institute and the Goethe Institute which allowed him to attend training and participate in networking across Ghana, Nigeria, France and Germany..

Angela Umoru has three years of experience in the nonprofit and media sectors. Angela earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Mass Communication from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. She is a 2020 World Literacy Foundation Ambassador and has utilized the opportunity to maximize and strengthen her fundraising, leadership, and advocacy skills. As a literacy advocate, she raised awareness on how illiteracy affects daily life by curating and sharing 112 “literacy stories” on social media. Previously, she worked as a Media and Communications Officer at Skills Outside School Foundation (SOSF), focusing on publicity for the Foundation’s work in life skill education for disadvantaged youth while securing relevant partnerships through digital media and production of media materials. In the time she worked with SOSF, she raised the organization’s profile by increasing social media followership by over 80% and spear-headed partnership discussions with various organizations. Currently, she is the Chief Operating Officer at Jela’s Development Initiatives (JDI), where she leads the teams in providing access to water, mental healthcare, and blood donors and promoting youth empowerment through volunteering. Through these experiences, she developed strong advocacy and collaboration skills. Angela is most interested in good governance and improving inclusion in education and mental health advocacy.

Jane Fisher is a creative professional with a diverse background in media, marketing, and international NGOs. For over six years of her career, she accumulated the best practices of journalism, commercial content writing, and editorial management. She is currently working in a medical startup that contributes to fighting cancer. While still completing her degree in Journalism, she already worked at her first Olympics. Shortly after that, she made her first appearance as a news reporter on TV. After almost two years on screen, she paused her career to earn a Master’s degree at Goldsmiths University, London. In 2018 she started working as a Project Coordinator at the Japanese Broadcasting Company, NHK. Within the next two years, she helped produce numerous programs addressing social and political issues. She eventually left to step into the role of Creative Editor at Movavi, an international IT company. Next, she took up a volunteer position as the Copywriting Team Lead at an international charity organization, Health & Help, which delivers medical help to some of the world’s poorest regions. Having gained some experience in medical content, Jane joined MedTech, so she could expand her impact on the world.

Lishu Gang has four years of professional experience at the intersection of technology, media, and politics. Currently, Lishu is a project manager at a data science startup working on products that help liberal-progressive political parties and organizations better control their media narratives. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Minerva Schools at KGI in a six-country global rotation program. Most recently, she completed a Master’s degree in Nationalism Studies from Central European University in Austria and Hungary, with a focus on migration and refugee studies and the Israel-Palestine conflict. While volunteering for the Alumni Relations Office and the Student Recruitment Office at CEU, Lishu contributed to various projects in event planning and operations, media production, and marketing and communications. Previously, she worked at an NGO to promote effective implementation of youth social change programs in Kenya, during which she researched the informal sector innovation gap and helped design a curriculum on systems-thinking. She also led several marketing projects and website development for two ed-tech startups in Berlin and San Francisco. Additionally, Lishu volunteered as a community-building assistant on diversity and inclusion at her undergraduate university. Through these experiences, she developed a diverse skill set of research and policy analysis, project coordination, and media production. She enjoys exploring innovative solutions to address complex political, social, and cultural problems.

Maha Dev Makwano is a noted development practitioner and research scholar. He is an Honorary Executive Director of Help to Underprivileged Masses and Non-Developed Societies (HUMANS) Pakistan, a registered NGO working in Tharparkar, raising small funds and taking small need-based initiatives. He has earned a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Sindh Jamshoro. He has got seven years of experience in designing, implementing, and monitoring small projects and grand programs. He has trained more than 1500 community-based nutrition workers, doctors, workers, and practitioners. He did not remain merely a manager but a leader who took the team and teamwork at their best in all assignments. Maha Dev has raised funds by hosting a television show and presenting documentaries for different small projects for Care & Relief Foundation. He was involved in designing, fundraising, and establishing two hospitals. Maha Dev writes articles in daily circulating newspapers and magazines and is working on some books of poetry and prose currently. Recently, he is working on two research-based documents, The Construction Manual of Dug Wells and The Lost Technology – History of Dug Wells. He has played a key role in the excavation of collapsed dug wells in Tharparkar with government departments and concerned organizations.

Mamoona Sarwar earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Punjab in 2015. Four years later, Mamoona earned a Master’s degree in Urdu from the University of Gujrat. Meanwhile, She also had the opportunity to experience teaching in different private schools & colleges for about nine years, and after that, she became a principal at “The future Montessori school Gujrat”, where she currently works.
She serves as a managing director, teacher, trainer, and Career counselor at the future Montessori school. She has experience taking part in different social projects, training, and research activities. Mamoona has been working to educate the children since 2010, first, she started educating poor children free of cost at home in her spare time in the evening but later on a coaching center “The future academy” requested her to join them as a teacher and trainer in2018. she accepted this request and she is still there While working in this academy, she prepared various training for students and faculty members. Additionally, Mamoona provided training for students and youngsters, to let them find their goals, carrier, and jobs, or create their own. As the Project Coordinator, she has been running a carrier counseling program at the future academy since 2020. Besides this, she provided counseling services and training for teachers, parents, and students to solve their issues. Lastly, she also provides a workshop on ” can I…? ” since August 2020