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.

Yosra T. Karoui

Yosra is a young and motivated Tunisian who studied English literature, civilization, and linguistics, and then went on to pursue her master’s degree in translation. She is passionate about learning new languages, acquiring new skills, and being more engaged in civil society.

She started to discover civil society in Tunisia when she joined Junior Chamber International (JCI). Since then, she has been involved in several initiatives on peace building, humanitarian ties, and youth.

As a Lazord Fellow, she was placed at Search for Common Ground Tunisia where she worked simultaneously on two projects under the big theme of peace building. The fellowship year allowed her to acquire more skills and be more engaged and ambitious.

Yosra has fully benefited from the Lazord Fellowship experience, which is a step forward in civil society in her country – a step that keeps broadening the sphere of her ambitions.

Azza Gamal

Azza obtained her BS in English from the University of Arts. She has been involved in civil society for more than five years and has received several certificates for various training courses in human rights.

Azza has held the following positions:

• Secretary receptionist & HR at Yemen Milestone for oilfield services Co. Yemen –Sana’a-Yemen
• Secretary, receptionist & HR at Yemen Air Fright Agency Sana’a-Yemen
• Assistant Programmer Officer at “TDF” association –Sana’a-Yemen

Azza has also volunteered at the organizations found below:

• Women’s leadership program NDI “Yemen”
• Arab Institute for Human Rights in the resource center
• Assistant Project Coordinator in Citizenship  at the Education club and protection for refugees and asylum-seekers in Tunisia

Azza has been an asylum seeker in Tunisia since 2015.

Houssem Jebali

Houssem is a 25-year-old Tunisian with a master’s degree who has been active in Tunisian civil society since 2015. Houssem is an enthusiastic activist who has participated in several workshops and trainings in Tunisia and abroad to broaden his knowledge on, and to promote youth-related issues. After finishing his one-year fellowship program with the Lazord Foundation, he was recruited by a company based in Qatar. Today, Houssem lives in Qatar and started his professional life as a translator, the career of which he has always dreamt. He is still committed to promoting youth-related issues, especially after gaining useful skills and tools during the Lazord Fellowship that will help him to continue to achieve his goals.

Farah Kanzari

Farah is 25 years old, and she specializes in fundamental English. She started her career in civil society 6 years ago. In 2016 she was selected to be a delegate of the North Africa International Model United Nations (NAIMUN) that took place at the American University in Tunisia. Two months later, she was selected to be the president of New Partnership for Africa’s Development in the African Union Model (AUM) that took place at the South Mediterranean School of Business (MSB) in Tunisia. She has held different positions in her career: she was a reporter with the International Institute of Debate, through which she received a TOT training and participated in the café-talk competition as a moderator, before becoming a project coordinator at NAMAA Association for Development and Democracy.

She has had the opportunity to work with different organizations in Tunisia where she  has worked with different stakeholders and actors, thus, being able to gain different skills in the fields of communications and community development.

She is ambitious, hard-working, able to work under pressure, and is innovative and creative. Farah believes that she has learned a lot through the ups and downs that she has experienced in her life.

Sirine Boukhchim

Sirine is an interior designer who graduated from the Higher Institute of Arts and Crafts of Sfax in 2017.

Over the years, she has participated in different activities, but the real journey started when she became a leader of the Tunisian Scouts, allowing her to test her skills in team work, team building, leadership, and planning. This experience highlighted the butterfly effect concept as a way of change – simple little steps that lead to major change in the long run.

In 2017, she received the Lazord Fellowship and was placed at ATL MST SIDA, starting another journey of self-exploration through her work on projects on communication and logistics.

Through the Erasmus + program, Sirine traveled to Latvia and Spain. This intercultural exchange gave her a golden opportunity to gain new experiences and to enrich her personality.

Sirine is currently pursuing a master’s degree in interior design while working as a freelance interior architect.

Her life’s journey is full of new experiences, benefits, and partnerships.

Emna Trabelsi

Emna Trabelsi is a 23-year-old English graduate with an ongoing master’s degree in journalism. During her university life, she started exploring and discovering the Tunisian civil society by joining several NGO’s and attending various human rights trainings.

In 2017, she became a Lazord Fellow and placed at Jamaity to begin a new experience of self-development and evolution.

Maroua Mimouni

Maroua Mimouni is an industrial biology engineer who graduated from the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (INSAT), in Tunis, in 2015.

During her university life, she participated in different volunteering activities within student clubs. She assisted in the organization of the first edition of the National Volunteering Day in Tunisia, in 2013. She contributed in other events and campaigns such as “Smile for me,” for children with cancer.

Her life as student at INSAT, was a very important and gorgeous experience which gave her the opportunity to meet inspiring people and to develop her personal skills, like teamwork, solidarity, autonomy and sense of responsibility. In 2017, she was accepted as a Lazord Fellow and placed at the International Institute and Debate starting her first journey to discover civil society outdoors of INSAT. She assists in grants management of the organization. It is another experience of self-exploration allowing her to test her capabilities and learn many skills such as communication especially in the professional environment.

For the coming years, she has many ideas in her head. She is planning to get her master’s degree in management and to launch her own social project.

Wiem Hamdi

Wiem has a master’s degree in geomatics and a bachelor’s degree in urban planning. While in college, she volunteered with NGOs, holding positions such as the head of communications and the head of the volunteers’ section. She has also been project assistant and project manager at the NGO I WATCH. Her four years of experience in various positions such as project assistant, administrative and logistics assistant, facilitator, and cartographer led her to the Lazord Fellowship. Through the fellowship, she was placed as a project assistant at the Tunisian Association of Public Auditors, where she continued to work for a short period after the end of the fellowship. Wiem is currently a freelance cartographer.