Experience

Amna (formerly Refugee Trauma Initiative)
• Greece
• Mental Health Care
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Trainer and Coordinator

  • Jun 2022 - Present


British Red Cross

• United Kingdom
• Civic and Social Organizations
• 700 & Above Employee

• Co-Production and Community Engagement Lead (Displacement & Migration focus)

  • Apr 2021 - Apr 2022

  • Responsible for influencing and embedding cultural and structural changes so that co-production could take place across the organisation, developing inclusion pilots, value & recognition policies, accountability mechanisms and co-production budgets; • Led on practical upskilling of local teams, increasing the capability, motivation and opportunity for local teams to practically deliver meaningful co-production, through the creation and delivery of training, capacity-building and open learning resources; • Convened communities of co-production practice for people with a stake in BRC’s work to come together to connect, share learning and inspire joint-actions; Show less



The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• United Kingdom
• Media Production
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Impact Producer and Community Organiser

  • Apr 2020 - Apr 2021

  • Responsible for building impact and community engagement strategies round each investigation carried out by the organisation’s Global Health team; • Held, cultivated and nurtured ecosystem of international relationships – from affected communities to decision-makers, civil society allies to influencers; • Led on ensuring Bureau’s journalism is actively participatory: that it starts and ends in communities affected by the issues we seek to represent and that community members are engaged as co-creators as well as the key audiences; • Nominated for the Association of British Science Writers’ Steve Connor Investigation of the Year, 2020, and the Medical Journalism Association’s Feature of the Year, 2021. Show less



Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

• Switzerland
• Non-profit Organizations
• 700 & Above Employee

• Survivor Advocacy Consultant

  • Jan 2020 - Mar 2020

  • Conducted field-mapping, assessment and support for new survivor advocacy initiative in Moria Camp, Lesvos. • Delivered consultancy and support for other MSF projects around the world interested in supporting and enabling self-advocacy groups within their respective clinical cohorts; • Penned academic journal article and learning papers on survivor advocacy model in collaboration with survivor advocacy group-members. • Conducted field-mapping, assessment and support for new survivor advocacy initiative in Moria Camp, Lesvos. • Delivered consultancy and support for other MSF projects around the world interested in supporting and enabling self-advocacy groups within their respective clinical cohorts; • Penned academic journal article and learning papers on survivor advocacy model in collaboration with survivor advocacy group-members.

• Survivor Advocacy Manager

  • Jun 2018 - Jun 2019

  • Headhunted to lay foundations for MSF's first-ever survivor advocacy project in collaboration with their Clinic for Rehabilitation for Victims of Torture, Athens; • Responsible for integrating a survivor-centred approach to MSF advocacy/clinical practice, whereby patients play an active role in informing decisions that directly impact them – internally and externally; • Built referral pathway mechanisms within project and conducted outreach for the identification and recruitment of group-members; • Designed and delivered regular training, mentoring and support aimed at growing the capacity and confidence of survivors of torture to organize for change, with a specific focus on access to healthcare; • Facilitated and supported regular opportunities for survivor-advocacy group members to advocate in collaboration with MSF, including via interviews with local, national and international media articles; joint actions with civil society partners; speeches at the United Nations, medical associations, and civil society conferences; awareness-raising workshops across for legal and health actors; and policy submissions to UNCAT, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and Greek National Commission on Human Rights; • Led on the development of civil society alliances between MSF, survivor-advocacy groups and other local, national and regional activists and healthcare professionals in the fight for access to healthcare for migrants; • Facilitated and supported different ways current/former-patients could feed-into best-practice within MSF's clinic, including via the co-authoring reports, advising on the formation of new mental-health support groups, and feeding-into recruitment. Show less



Detention Action

• United Kingdom
• Civic and Social Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Campaigns and Freed Voices Coordinator

  • Mar 2014 - Jun 2018

  • Led on organisation's wider campaign strategy, responsible for developing campaign messaging, building and nurturing community, civil society and political alliances, receiving the Liberty Human Rights Award for Campaign of the Year in 2015; • Built, developed, and managed model of expert-by-experience led-activism which now defines the organisation's advocacy outreach, primarily through support of the Freed Voices group – a collective of survivors of immigration detention committed to speaking-out for an end to indefinite detention; • Co-ordinated and supported delivery of all advocacy and campaigns outputs, from creative communications (such as 'Invisible', a prize-winning virtual-reality documentary on indefinite detention); to political lobbying and the penning of policy submissions (for bodies like the Home Affairs Select Committee and UN Global Detention Strategy); to the delivery of keynote speeches at Parliament, UN and EU level; to media work with, among others, the Guardian, New York Times, The Times, ARTE, Independent, BBC, Al Jazeera and Sky News; • Delivered regular public speeches, workshops and training for NGO, parliamentary, university, activist, faith and community groups on survivor-led organising, immigration detention and migrant justice; • As Communications Co-ordinator of the Detention Forum, co-designed, managed and ran 'Unlocking Detention' - an annual 'virtual' tour of the UK's detention estate, which garnered international recognition as an innovative form of migrant justice digital campaigning; • Successfully managed campaign budgets and sourced/secured funding, providing regular monitoring and evaluation and progress reports; • Delivered consultancy on self-advocacy, migrant justice campaigning and active participation-campaigning, at both national and international levels; Show less



Freedom from Torture

• United Kingdom
• Non-profit Organizations
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Campaigner and Survivor Activism Coordinator

  • May 2012 - Feb 2014

  • Responsible for developing and leading-on organisation’s campaign strategy, which involved bringing healthcare professionals and survivor activists together to deliver high-profile advocacy actions at the House of Commons, Foreign Office, European Parliament and United Nations; publishing reports on the impact of poverty on survivors' ability to access their right to rehabilitation, and torture in Iran and DRC, respectively; and delivering awareness-raising workshops for school, activist and community groups, Home Office Screening Officers, and medical practitioners. • Coordinated survivor activism, facilitating the political activities of the Survivors Speak OUT (SSO) network and the creative output of the Write for Life group; • Designed and implemented creative training and capacity-building programme for survivor activists, with an emphasis on speaking-out, storytelling, creative writing, media interviewing, podcasting, videography, blogging and campaign messaging; • Developed and nurtured strategic alliances with NGO allies, health and legal actors, and working partners across the creative/heritage sector; • Managed advocacy department's expenditure and the campaign budget, ensuring sound and responsible resource management. Show less



Magic Me

• United Kingdom
• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Producer

  • Jan 2012 - May 2012

  • Facilitated intergenerational groups of young and old participants in capacity building and training through creative and dynamic educational methodologies; • Worked effectively with teachers and staff at all levels of partner organisations – at schools, colleges, care centres and nursing homes – to ensure sessions/projects met the needs of everybody involved; • Developed creative project strategy in close collaboration with partners within the heritage sector, including Hackney Museum, the Museum of Childhood, the Women’s Library and Wilton’s Music Hall. Show less



Babel Publishing

• Music
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Copyeditor

  • Mar 2011 - Dec 2011

  • Re-wrote the English copy of 'Black City, White, City' - a prize-winning study on the political, cultural and ethnic cleavages between Tel Aviv’s majority and minority communities. • Re-wrote the English copy of 'Black City, White, City' - a prize-winning study on the political, cultural and ethnic cleavages between Tel Aviv’s majority and minority communities.



Amnesty International

• United Kingdom
• Non-profit Organizations
• 700 & Above Employee

• Advocacy Officer

  • May 2008 - Sep 2009

  • Co-designed and co-project managed Amnesty Israel’s first ever refugee and asylum seeker campaign, mobilising thousands across four continents; • Led on design/production of mass communication in all formats, including teaching packages, educational aids, online documentaries and print publicity materials; • Involved in the capacity building of local refugee-led organisations through training, consultation and coalition support; • Led a campaign team of fifteen international volunteers, ensuring projects were completed to budget and deadline; • Represented Amnesty as a public speaker to UK, Israeli and Palestinian political parties, student bodies, youth movements and volunteer networks. Show less