A PROJECT OF
Hyab Yohannes is a research associate at the University of Glasgow. His work involves conducting research and synthesising findings to provide insights into theoretical, methodological, and policy-related questions. Recently, Hyab co-edited a Special Issue on Intercultural Knowledge Production for the Journal of Language and Intercultural Communication. He is also currently co-editing a Handbook of Cultures of Sustainable Peace for Multilingual Matters. Additionally, he has signed a book contract with Routledge for his upcoming publication entitled “The Refugee Abyss”. Hyab’s research interests include (b)ordering (physical, onto-epistemic, spatio-temporal, juridico-political, etc.), (de)coloniality, and political theories.
At the age of 20, Luca achieved something he had been working towards since elementary school. He began his career as a football commentator at Sky Sport Austria, thus reaching his interim professional goal.
Prior to joining Sky Sport Austria, Luca had already reached many journalistic milestones. For more than two and a half years, he had designed and hosted the weekly sports program of the online radio station “Radio Waltl,” written articles for “Die Woche” and “SturmNetz,” taken part in the media summer academy “Energy for Life,” and completed three internships at ORF (two of them at the Styrian regional studio, one at the ORF Center in Vienna).
Luca is also the author of the book Daheimkicker, which he co-authored with Philipp Maschl.
At the beginning of 2022, Luca started his own business as a journalist and presenter, offering mainly event moderation. In parallel, he has been completing the part-time sports journalism course of the “Paris Lodron University Salzburg” at the Olympiazentrum Rif. In addition, he writes regularly on inclusion and accessibility in his own column of the street newspaper “Megaphon”.
With his journey, Luca consciously aims to contribute both directly and indirectly to making the world a more inclusive place, where people with disabilities have the same opportunities as those without disabilities.
Originally from Somalia, Suad has also lived in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, and Austria. She speaks six languages: Somali, Arabic, German, English, Hindi and Urdu.
She graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Karachi. She works as a Social Medical Consultant (including psychological counseling) at DiakonieÖsterreich and as an Assistant Consultant at the Austrian Red Cross. She also works at the Medical University of Vienna as a researcher. Suad is a certified counselor regarding female genital mutilation (FGM) issues and is active in related community outreach. SDG 3 is especially important to Suad. She aims to spread awareness about refugee and migration issues, to improve the healthcare and pharmaceutical systems in developing countries, and to empower women.
Layla Barakeh is a humanitarian worker and disaster-management specialist based in Syria. She specializes in mental health and psychosocial support and livelihood training. Layla is the Director of Humanitarian Community Life (HCL), a capacity-building initiative for humanitarian settings in Syria and Yemen.
Malaika Oringo is the Founder and CEO of Footprint to Freedom, a survivor-led organization. She is also the Founder of Footprint to Climate and the African Survivor Coalition. A talented advocate, she speaks up against human trafficking, stands up for victims’ rights and works to strengthen survivor inclusion and engagement. Malaika has spoken on various stages throughout Europe and at the United Nations in New York. Raised in Uganda in harsh conditions and exploited in the Netherlands, she has devoted her life to fighting against human trafficking. Malaika believes that since survivors are the most significant stakeholders in the fight against human trafficking, they should sit at decision-making tables from the community level to the national level and the international level.
Aigerim Seitenova is a human rights professional from Kazakhstan with more than five years of experience in the civil society sector of Kazakhstan with a particular focus on human rights and peace education, youth and feminist activism.
Aigerim Seitenova is a nuclear disarmament activist and a third-generation survivor of Soviet nuclear testing. Aigerim’s interests are centred across intersecting areas such as human rights, disarmament and nuclear colonialism, WPS (women, peace and security) and YPS (youth, peace and security), critical approaches to international law, and peace activism, cross-culture education, decolonial feminism and civil society advocacy. Aigerim is one of the founding members of the newly established initiative Steppe Organization for Peace (STOP): Qazaq Youth Initiative for Nuclear Justice. Aigerim is an alumna of the UK Govt Chevening Scholarship and holds an LL.M in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex and an MA in European Studies from the EU Global Campus Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratization in the Caucasus.
Weirong Li, a global citizen with Hungarian, Chinese, and American influences, is the founder and CEO of Raw Culture, a social impact media company that promotes human rights through diversity initiatives. She is a Global Communications Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Moderator, and Facilitator with a focus on cross-cultural communication, diversity equity and inclusion, and global citizenship education. Weirong is a TEDx speaker and serves as a UN Geneva Representative at World Information Transfer, advocating for environmental literacy and health. Weirong’s work aims to foster positive societal impact by cultivating global citizenship skills to promote a more loving, collaborative, and peaceful world through the power of diversity and storytelling.
A Syrian of a refugee background, Doaa is one of 11 survivors of the 2014 Malta migrant shipwreck that killed approximately 500 people. Doaa survived four days at sea, holding two infants; she was rescued and taken to Greece.
A book was written about Doaa: A Hope More Powerful than the Sea. She has won numerous awards, including from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). Doaa lives in Sweden.
Laur-Mihai Amanolesei (26 years old, Iasi, Romania) is a poet and researcher on restorative justice for LGBTQI+ people in sport. He has read and performed publicly in Romania, while publishing his poetry in several online magazines in Romania (Echinox, FILIT) and abroad (Casapais). His poetry explores memory in queer love alongside contemporary components of the ethos of existence of queer people such as: instinctual powerlessness, limerence & political oppression.
Rania Ali is an award winning journalist, public speaker, and human rights defender from Syria. Having made her first award-winning documentary with the Guardian in 2017, she works as a campaigner highlighting to governments the importance of protecting human rights defenders worldwide. She is an advocate for human rights generally and refugee and women’s rights specifically, engaged in that pursuit for the past five years. She has dedicated herself to speaking on many international platforms for said issues.
Rania Ali has a degree in international relations thus expanding her expertise in areas related to post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation.
At the age of 13, Ishaan Shah co-founded Stolen Dreams, and more recently, the Youth for Freedom Collective, two international youth-led collectives working with stakeholders to counter modern slavery and human trafficking through education, advocacy, and policy. Today, Ishaan is 20-years-old and was the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations’ Youth Delegate to the UN’s 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), is the first Youth Focal Point for the Review and Implementation of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), a UN Women National Gender Youth Advocate, UNESCO SDG4 Youth Network Representative, the UN MGCY’s Migration Youth and Children’s Platform (MYCP) Trafficking in Persons Specialist, and a Youth Representative on the UN Network on Migration’s Civil Society Action Committee. He is also the youngest member of the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, sitting on the Supply Chains Working Group. Through this work, Ishaan is promoting meaningful youth participation, partnership and co-leadership in decision-making processes at all levels.
Markus Wane, an Economics and International Law student, has engaged in projects focused on education and environmental concerns in Senegal with the Austrian Service Abroad, aligning with broader human rights objectives. His experience includes contributing to political reporting for the European Commission in Austria and support work at the Austrian Embassy in Dakar. He is involved in volunteer roles, such as his mandate within an international Youth Reference Committee for Youth engagement.
Laurent Ziegler (MA) is the author of the print publication »Die Erinner
