Hamdi Kammoun
Hamdi Kammoun is an accountant who graduated from the Institute of High Commercial Studies in Sfax, Tunisia, in 2015.
Throughout his life, he has participated in different activities, but he believes that the real journey started in 2010 when he became a member of ATL MST SIDA, the Tunisian Association for the Fight against Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS. Being a part of this association allowed him to test his abilities of teamwork, team building, leadership, and planning. This experience highlighted the butterfly effect concept as a way of change – simple little steps can lead to major change in the long run.
In 2017, he was accepted to the Lazord Fellowship program and was placed at ATUPRET. This started another journey of self-exploration that is full of new experiences, benefits, and partnerships.
Nourhan Refaat
Nourhan graduated from the English department at the Faculty of Education at Ain Shams University. She believes that the development field consists of work by the people to the people. Nour works from her heart. She works for youth empowerment on many levels by working with different INGOs. She defines herself as adventurer who seeks to discover this world, but according to her, the best adventure that anyone can ever experience is to discover oneself. Nour started her career very early during college. She thought that she was working to help people and to satisfy their needs, but what she discovered was that work feeds one’s soul and make each one of us more human. She loves talking with people from different backgrounds, experiences, and nationalities. Everyone has a story that deserves to be heard. You can find Nour working with youth of varying ages, helping them to map out their future by determining their needs and assets.
Mosaab Mahmoud
Mosaab is an electrical engineer who believes that engineering is an art of understanding the world we live in and a way to solve its difficulties. In 2016, he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Al-Azhar University, and since 2013, he has worked as a field researcher on a cultural documentation project with the border tribes who live south of the Red Sea. He was involved with two different civil society associations and had the chance to attend Namaa’ School for Sustainable Development during the summer of 2012. As a student of Namaa’, he developed his ability to understand the different political and economic maps that shape our society. He is an avid reader who is interested in poetry, anthropology, and literature, and aspires to become a professional writer.
Menna Roshdy
Menna Roshdy is a human rights and women’s rights activist. She graduated with honors from the American University in Cairo (AUC) with a degree in Political Science and a double minor in Arabic and Islamic Civilization and History. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law at AUC. She is a socially engaged student, participating in several organizations and working with different university offices. She was one of the organizers of an anti-sexual harassment campaign, a CBL project between AUC and Resala Association for Charity. She worked at the Office of Student Well-being assisting disabled students with their academic lives. She also assisted disabled students as a volunteer with the Helm organization. She is currently working on a project at the Center of Egyptian Women Legal Assistance (CEWLA).
Maxwell Botrous
Throughout Maxwell Botrous’ career he has joined various institutions at home and abroad that operate locally, regionally, and/or internationally. These experiences have helped him form new skills and sharpen already existent ones. On the top of the list of his acquired skills lies working with different nationalities, the capacity to communicate in diverse settings, and cultural sensitivity. Majoring in political science was a natural fit for him. While in high school, he started a journey of career discovery by creating his own political discourse channel through rap music. This channel caught the attention of regional organizations such as the League of Arab States, and eventually even reaching international organizations such as the United Nations’ World Food Programme. Through his communication skills and interest in politics he finds great joy in working in the field creating new bonds and relationships with people from different backgrounds while, at the same time, applying analytical research and reporting skills. He is passionate about having an impact on society and regards it as a self-rewarding process that fulfills his aspirations and achieves dual goals of personal and communal interests. His future goal is to create an NGO that focuses on conflict resolution and spreading a culture of tolerance and diversity appreciation.
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.