Ahmed Ali

Ahmed from Qena – Upper Egypt. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Power Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering specializing in Industrial Wastewater from South Valley University.

He has good exposure to diverse development topics including environment, youth empowerment, entrepreneurship, innovation and economic empowerment. He worked as a Project Coordinator at Dandara Al-Ebdaa Creative-Qena Operator (ITIDA-TIEC), as Head of Public Relations and Fundraising Committee for IEEE SVU SB, as an Innovation Ambassador for TIEC, Also, as a Youth Program Assistant Intern at UNFPA Egypt country office in Cairo.

Over the past seven years, driven by a desire to make a meaningful impact, he has experienced working and volunteering with different organizations with governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as international and local organizations on programs that worked on various issues and topics such as entrepreneurship, economic empowerment, and youth development.

In addition, he founded three initiatives for his community, the first one was for rising the environmental awareness for kids. The second one was for helping children to get a high-quality education, besides the governmental education to teaching them English in interactive ways and developing their soft skills. The third one was for qualifying high school students for university life and developing their skills.

Mona Ramadan

Mona holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Damietta University.

With a profound belief in the transformative power of continuous effort, she embarked on a versatile professional journey spanning social entrepreneurship, community development, youth empowerment, refugees, and gender equality.

Currently serving as a Youth Engagement Research Assistant at Ashoka Arab World in the youth regional Program. Mona is passionate about harnessing the potential of young changemakers to impact the world positively. Her role involves supporting youth initiatives through various programs and tools, fostering a community of changemakers throughout the region. Having extensive experience as a youth worker and community facilitator for more than 5 years, she facilitated more than 20 workshops in ten Egyptian governorates, engaging with diverse communities, including women, children, and youth.

Through her journey she worked with Caritas Egypt, Goethe Institute, Ambassadors for Dialogue, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, and NASA Space Apps. Statement that reflects Mona’s beliefs: “Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it makes a process, brings an understanding of what works and what doesn’t work, ups your skill level, creates new habits, and builds confidence”.

Hesham Farouk

Hesham Sayed is passionate about education. He wants to make a positive difference and impact in the development field.

He graduated from the faculty of education in the chemistry department and then he continued his postgraduate studies in psychology.

Later, he recognized his passion in the development sector, especially in education, so he started his journey with CARE Egypt as a facilitator volunteer in BPRM project. This period helped him to learn how to communicate with many different nationalities and learn more about different cultures.

After this, he joined CRS Egypt as a verification volunteer in the educational program. During this time, he gained knowledge of the refugees’ educational system in Egypt. He continued with the Save the Children as a youth and adolescent facilitator where he acquired a lot of understanding about youth and being part of their transformation to be community leaders.

Afterwards, he joined the Lazord fellowship and currently he has been placed at Wataneya for the development of orphanages as a research and knowledge coordinator. This is the start of his new journey as a researcher to make orphans’ life better. Also, he monitors and evaluates orphans’ data and does qualitative research to make sure that orphans have an equitable life.

He believes that everyone deserves equal opportunities in life. Life is a journey, and he is grateful that he is gaining a lot of experience every day from his colleagues and family, and everybody around him. He believes that in order to reach our goals, we should gain different experiences from different fields.

Hager Ebeid

Hager Ebeid is an accomplished environmental engineer and sustainability enthusiast with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Sciences and a professional diploma in Solar Energy from The American University in Cairo. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering, specialising in Smart Management of Climate Change.

Hager has made a significant impact throughout her career. As a consultant at Chemonics Egypt, she provided expert advice on environmental projects and developed innovative solutions. She also played a crucial role as a coordinator in the safe spaces’ initiative of the UNFPA, empowering vulnerable populations, particularly women and youth.

Beyond her professional engagements, Hager actively contributes as a trainer in green technology programs, inspiring others to embrace sustainable practices. She has represented the United Nations Population Fund at international forums and attended COP 27 as an observer, a prestigious global event focused on addressing climate change. Hager’s dedication to environmental engineering and sustainable development is truly remarkable. Through her work, she strives to create a greener and more sustainable future, serving as an inspiration to her peers and beyond.

Farha Alaa

Farha received her Bachelor’s Degree in Humanities, Sociology Department in 2022. She has a strong belief in the power of education and how it can provide children and youth with the skills and knowledge they need to build a brighter future for themselves and their families.

Farha has been interested in social development since a very young age, and thus, she has been volunteering for the last nine years in social development projects. Her interest in education made her volunteer in several educational projects including educational programs in Ezbet Abu-Qarn and Ezbet Khair-Allah.

She also worked for three years as a character-building teacher for kids trying to make them discover their strengths and potential. She’s been a trainer’s coordinator at Science Crafts for Educational Solutions for over a year. Currently as a Lazord Fellow, she is placed at GIZ in Technical Support for the Comprehensive Technical Education Initiative (TCTI) project.

Veronia Gerges

Veronia has a Bachelor’s Degree in Physiotherapy.

She is passionate about refining a future worths living for all people, especially those in vulnerable situations. On the grounds of this, she started working with refugees in projects of the Egyptian Health Ministry and volunteering in BPRM and UNICEF’s projects, and that grew her passion for refugees’ right to a better life and access to their basic needs.

Believing in the impact of education, Veronia’s placement is in the Save the Children education project as a Lazord fellow. Matching her passion with her work and enjoying the change that happens in students’ lives, as much as enjoying skills obtained from the fellowship.

Hatem Mohyeldin

With a mind full of questions and an overwhelming desire for knowledge, Hatem Mohyeldin seeks to shape his own culture and philosophy to serve the society’s goals in which he lives. While studying Arabic literature and literary criticism at Alexandria university, he sought to hone his analytical and philosophical skills; so he joined the Summer School of Philosophy as a student, then a lecturer, and then responsible for the content preparation team. Besides his participation in student activities as the coordinator’s vice of the Safwa team, the student entity representing the Library of Alexandria (BA) within universities.

Adding to his practical experiences as a research assistant, researcher, data researcher, and proofreader in several institutions and projects during the period before joining the Lazord Fellowship. Based on his belief in knowledge and cultural diversity as a tool for the development of society and the harmony of its members, he enhanced his experience during his internship in the Civic Participation Unit at DEDI, and learned the different aspects of project management, and how to enhance the skills of participation, sustainability, and acceptance within the framework of cultural exchange.

During the last quarter of 2021, Hatem coordinated a project of critical readings of Naguib Mahfouz’s works at the 6 Bab-Sharq Center in Alexandria, where the participants seek to analyse and interrogate the novels and discuss the text and its connection to reality, and then criticize it. This project turned to be the first step to “هوامش قارئ “which means “a reader commentaries” in the end of 2022, as he believe in the cultural discussion as a way to understand the society.

Yara Emad

Yara has been working as an advanced trainer in the field of (SRHR) and gender with Y-PEER Egypt (Funded by UNFPA ) since 2016. She currently works as a trainer on comprehensive sexuality education with Love Matters.

Yara tries to understand the health problems that occur in Egypt and which methods are followed by health organizations. She attended a reproductive health training with the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut.

Yara is also interested in the field of research, and participated on a research project between Agiad Psychiatric Hospital in Egypt and Pittsburgh University in the USA in 2020.

Nawal Bahaa

As a truth seeker Nawal has always been eager to know the “why” behind everything: Why is life the way it is? Why are people the way they are? Why is life is sometimes not fair? The urge to answer these questions led her to certain paths in life: education, entrepreneurship sustainability and social research. Therefore, while in college, she volunteered in student organizations and worked on education and research-related development projects. Her experiences have led her to the conclusion that she dreams of contributing to the community development sector as a development practitioner.

Aly Samara

Aly holds a BA in Social Work and has three years of experience in the development sector, focusing on issues related to protection, gender, research, monitoring, evaluation basis. In addition, he works on capacity building for volunteers to qualify them for developmental work, as well as writing a guide for different programs. He is able to find the connecting links that allow these areas to complement each other.