Hend El Ghazaly

Hend graduated from Cairo University in 2015 with a degree in Political Science, and from the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CILAS) in 2016 with a degree in Liberal Arts. She is currently a co-fellow at the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CILAS), where she co-taught a course called, “Post-Colonialism, Modernity and Politics.” She is a co-director of the Research and Translation labs in the same institute. She co-authored an academic paper, “Is there a civic learning environment in the Faculty of Economics and Political Science?” that was featured at the Civic Role of Arab Universities Conference in April 2016, organized by Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs and the Lebanese Association for Educational Studies at the American University of Beirut. She is interested in Urban Development studies as she sees it as a physical manifestation of power relations, and believes that it is a product of and produces social interactions. She likes to observe the movement and interactions of people with the streets, each other, and transportation, in their everyday life. She participated in the, “Urbanism and Social Justice,” workshop organized by 10 Tooba for applied research on the urban environment, and gave a presentation on the politics of mobility in the city. Lastly, she likes to listen to Ali Al Haggar songs and gatherings at Abdeen garden.

Amal Maher Eltahawy

Amal Maher Tahawy graduated from the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management at Suez Canal University. She worked at AYB-SCU, a branch of AYB (Alashanek ya Baladi Association for Sustainable Development), starting as an HR employee, then becoming HR director for two years. Amal was the first female president of AYB Ismailia. The following year she became a member of AYB Association, and was responsible for supervising the Port Said branch. In addition, she worked with Takatof-SCU as a coordinator of the Tourism’s Triple Effect Team, where they worked on a project to solve the blood crisis in Egypt. Amal is a co-founder of Firan, the first student club at a tourism school in Egypt, which works on three projects: qualifying students to work in tourism clubs, tourism promotion, and discovering unknown tourist destinations in Egypt. She then joined the Lazord Fellowship and now works as a manager at Pro-Pledge Group.

Alaa Allouh

Alaa is a Syrian living in Egypt. In 2016, Alaa Allouh graduated from the School of Economics and Political Science at Future University in Egypt with a degree in Political Science and a new passion for civil, social, and human developmental work. She was keen on exposing herself to new practical ideas and experiences that would boost and develop the skills she needed to pursue a professional career in this field. Alaa’s motivation for this profession roots greatly in the strong belief that seeking knowledge in this direction/field will one day be extremely useful to help rebuild her country.

Since November 2016, she has worked as a documentation and communication officer with the Community Empowerment of refugees in Egypt, implemented by Terre des hommes based in Cairo, Egypt, and funded by the UNHCR. She has excelled in building authentic relationships with both the project team and beneficiaries. She has also proven how well she could work under pressure. Dedicated to advancing her projects, she never hesitates to take initiative and to perform tasks that is not required of her, such as translating texts from English to Arabic, and helping her colleagues create a filing system for hard copies of refugee applications. She helped organize a volunteering experience in India. This experience in turn helped her learn and explore different things that are outside her everyday life realities.

Alaa never misses a chance to explore things that would stimulate and benefit her mind and soul. She follows everything that intrigues her passions and beliefs, never ceasing to seek fulfilling experiences that will show her how to improve her life and what she can continue to achieve.

Ahmed Elsawy

Ahmed Elsawy was one of the top students in the military academy when he decided to be close to people, to be creative, and find a safe space to enhance his skills, and his passion. Through his long volunteering experience which he is grateful for, he was involved in a great deal of independent research requiring initiative, self–motivation, and a wide range of skills. He volunteered for one of the most reputable organizations “Community Development “as a Case Worker who determined the funding process of families.

Moreover, he had a spectacular experience as a PR specialist. He wrote analytical reports to the President and General Secretary in his work. With the same passion to serve his community, he also, worked as a Case Manager with refugees and later as a Facilitator for children and refugees in “Terre des Hommes “. He gave sessions about avoiding violence in schools after having the needed training.

He joined the UNAIDS program as a Social Mobilization and Youth Coordinator for one year during his Lazord fellowship which enhanced his skills in communication, PR, M&E, organization, collaboration, writing analytical reports, strategic planning, management, assessment, technical support for a governmental organization or NGO’s. Furthermore, he worked as a Project Coordinator at Educate Me Foundation which improves the governmental schools. In addition, he was the Branch Manager at Masr Al Mahrousa Balady Association, the Administration Section Head and later the Business Development Officer at SYE Foundation.

Currently, he has been working as a COO at Roaya Group Company.

Ahmed Adel Taher

After graduating from his studies in philosophy, Ahmed decided to explore working with children in different fields. This encouraged him to follow the educational track in civil society. He worked on creating a database of educational organizations in Egypt, focusing on marginalized areas, to add them to the development map.

Makouk helped him discover different educational tools through coordinating trainings for facilitators outside of Cairo.

He would like to have the ability to understand the concept of civic education and how to apply it in Egypt by doing activities through games and sharing with children in schools.

Ahmad Abdelgalil

Ahmad Abdelgalil holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cairo University and pursued a post-graduate diploma in Management focused on Non-profit Organizations. His professional journey revolves around his passion for Youth Empowerment, Social Entrepreneurship, Economic Empowerment, Project Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Gender equality.

In 2017, he was recognized with the “LAZORD” Fellowship from The American University in Cairo for his valuable contributions to social development initiatives.

In 2022, Ahmad was awarded the Professional Fellowship by the U.S. State Department, affording him a month-long opportunity at the DC Department of Employment Services to deepen his understanding of youth empowerment strategies in the USA and enhance his interventions in his home region.

Currently, he serves as a Youth and Adolescents Development Officer at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Prior to this, he held the role of Gender & Economic Empowerment Specialist at Plan International Egypt, contributing to the Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs in Egypt project (SWEET).

Ahmad spent five impactful years at “Ashoka Arab World,” where he supported more than 118 social entrepreneurs dedicated to tackling pressing social issues in the Arab world. In this role, he facilitated the scaling of their impact, replication of successful models, and catalyzed systemic change within their respective fields.

He has also lent his expertise as a research assistant at “The Economist” for the Global Health Index Project and served as a Monitoring and Evaluation Team Leader at “OXFAM” for the Youth Employment Project (WiP).

During his undergraduate years, Ahmad held significant leadership roles, including President of the Faculty of Economics’ Student Union and a member of Cairo University’s Student Council. In these positions, he worked tirelessly to enhance the educational environment for over 300,000 students.

Abdulrahman Al Rawas

AbdelRahman is a Syrian living in Egypt. He works at Syria El-Ghad, which is sponsored by UNHRC. He is a project manager of the Livelihood Project, and since 2012, he has been involved in the development field as a volunteer and an employee.

In 2017, he graduated from Ain Shams University, from the Faculty of Commerce in the Department of Business Administration. As a student at Ain Shams University, he participated in several student activities, such as Model Organization Of Islamic Cooperation (MOIC) and the Model Of American Congress (MAC).

Last year, he started as an information analyst on the Livelihood Project. After proving his competence and ability to manage a team, AbdelRahman was honored at the end of the project by being asked to become the project manager this year. In addition, he has been, and is currently a volunteer on several volunteer teams (related to the Syrian community in Egypt).

AbdelRahman hopes to continue developing his skills in the field of humanitarian work and is dedicated to provide what he can especially when it comes to economic empowerment to refugee communities.

Heba Shama

Heba Shama is an architect with a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from the American University in Cairo (AUC). Heba was involved in several projects that focused on reclaiming the right to public spaces and proposing physical interventions to overcome social issues such as women and girls’ safety, children’s rights to play, and encouraging mutual acceptance between local communities and refugees. Heba is currently working with Takween Integrated Community Development (ICD) in the framework of a project for the British Museum, where she works on documenting the vernacular architecture of the village of Shutb while trying to engage with the community on building a collective appreciation for the local tangible and intangible heritage.

Shama grew up in South Sinai where she is currently involved on a project, “Strengthening Protected Areas’ Financing and Management Systems,” with the Operational Unit for Development Assistance for UNDP Egypt. She is also involved as a teaching assistant for the USAID program, “English Access Micro-scholarship Program.” Heba is working as a voluntary art workshop co-facilitator with Tur-Sinai Youth Center, which collaborates effectively in delivering a diverse range of visual arts-based workshops to young children. Shama has a special interest in working on relief operations and education and refugee-oriented initiatives, especially on initiatives that focus on children.

Heba considers herself as a multidisciplinary designer. She is an architect who is interested in the visual and literary expression of cultures; a philanthropist with a strong passion to work with, learn from, and empower the local communities. This is an identity that she developed through her participation with the Lazord Fellowship. Recently, she has become a graphic designer, and sometimes considers herself as an amateur photographer who enjoys taking photos with her cellphone camera.