Arwa Mufleh

Arwa is a young social worker and activist curious about working with diverse perspectives to enact change. She received an undergraduate degree in social work with individuals, youth, and communities from the University of Jordan. Through the Lazord Fellowship, she is currently a program assistant at Plan International. Her experience is rooted in a rock-solid background of working with youth from all cultures and different life circumstances. Through these experiences she has gained a diverse set of skills in research, facilitation, projects, and event management.

If Arwa had a superpower, she would like to have the power to make people’s dreams come true, especially those of children who dream of completing their education, women who dream of independence and salvation from injustice, men who dream of stability, and human beings who dream of salvation from war and hope to return to their homes.

Mu’taz Alhulayil

Mu’taz holds a degree in business administration from Yarmouk University in Jordan. Since his early childhood, he was drawn to community service activities. He is a hard-working and proactive individual with strong problem-solving and communication skills and the ability to learn new concepts fast. He is very passionate about community service projects and has been involved in many projects as a volunteer in youth support and women empowerment programs with different NGOs in Jordan. He believes that the most important factors for success in the career life are to love your field, desire and perseverance to learn, and to have a short and long-term vision that you strive to achieve.

Shaimaa Abdelrahman

Shaimaa is a young doctor with a great interest in the field of global health, especially regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as gender equality. During her years in university, she engaged with the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) and held several positions including Program Coordinator on GBV and National Officer on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights including HIV & AIDs in Egypt. Through the Lazord Fellowship, she is currently placed at IOM Egypt, in the Health Unit.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” This quote literally changed Shaimaa’s life.

Liliann Saudi

Through the Lazord Fellowship, Liliann is a research assistant at West Asia – North Africa (WANA) Institute, where she is a part of the Like-Minded CAAC Working Group – UNETCHAC. Liliann has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Jordan. Her last internship was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in the media field, in which she was responsible for writing daily and weekly news reports, and assisted more than one research project. She had the opportunity to be the stenographer in the Jordan-EU Association Council-14th session. She is also a volunteer at Global Humanitarian organization. She was an intern at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, where she attended a lot of trainings and workshops like human rights, climate change, communication skills, dialogue skills and social justice. She was a volunteer at the King Hussein Cancer Center and Foundation (KHCC-KHCF). Lastly, she was an intern at New Tactics in Human Rights-Center for Victims of Torture, where she completed the online course on, “Strategic Advocacy: Planning and tracking advocacy campaigns.”

Abeer Hasan

Abeer is a passionate, hardworking, and professional individual who holds an excellent degree in translation and interpretation. Abeer is an alumna of the MEPI Student Leaders Program, a one-year program that includes a five-week residency in the United States. Abeer is also an alumna of the Access Microscholarship Program, a US Embassy program consisting of 400 academic hours, that took place at World Associates. Her personal and professional achievements allowed her to do a professional training in project management, which gave her the opportunity to implement a successful teaching project at SOS Village in Irbid, made possible by a generous fund from the U.S Embassy in Amman.

What really makes Abeer stand out is her continuous willingness to share the knowledge she gets. She always prefers that information should not stop when it reaches her; she feels the responsibility of reciprocity.

Bayan Al-Smadi

Through the Lazord Fellowship, Bayan is working as a project assistant with the consultancy company Integrated International. She has been a youth activist since 2014 and an ambassador with several organisations such as Rasheed for Integrity and Transparency, INJAZ Organization and others. She represented Canada and Jordan at the Global Youth Summit.

Overmore, her participation in the Amideast Youth Innovation Program has been considered an outstanding success story. In addition, she has a TOT certificate from ILM. She is also working as a researcher in the field of social justice with the West Asia and North Africa Institute. You can find via the following link a recently published research paper about the reality of preparing tourist places for people with motor and visual disabilities in Ajloun Governorate.

Areeg Badawy

Areeg graduated from Cairo University with a degree in veterinary medicine. However, she loves to identify herself as a social activist and an advocate for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through working to enhance young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and reducing the gender gap. Areeg is an experienced trainer in the field of peer education, SRHR, and gender. Her interest in the field of SRHR has grown through being a peer educator in Y-peer for 3 years, and serving now as a MEL officer in USAID-funded project OSRA.

If Areeg had a superpower, she would want to be able to plant diverse types of trees and crops in all deserted areas around the world.

Beshoy Magdy

Beshoy received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. During his time in college he volunteered in different activities like ENACTUS, as he believes in the power of entrepreneurship and its positive impact on people’s lives. He represented his country in international programs focused on gender and environment in Japan, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which gave him a new perspective on global challenges.

He saw that the Lazord Fellowship was an exceptional-just-in-time opportunity to explore civic engagement on a deeper level. Through the fellowship, he is placed at USAID, working on a program that seeks to provide safe work environments for women in Egypt and to change private sector policies to be more inclusive for women.

If Beshoy had a superpower, he would like it to be the power to make people accept each other and live in peace.

Mohamed El Fetyany

Mohamed was born and raised in Alexandria City until he obtained his bachelor’s degree. His journey in civil society started when he was 11 years old. He used to volunteer in local NGOs and participated in many projects in Bibliotheca Alexandrina. He went to the EU delegation in Cairo while participating in the Model European Union as a member of the Parliament Council. In the same year he worked on a project funded by UNHCR. At this time, he found his passion working in the development field. In his second year of university he started volunteering at Caritas Egypt-Alexandria office. He was responsible for the Fundraising Committee as a team leader. He considers the Lazord Fellowship as a golden opportunity, especially since he was placed at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which will allow him to promote his professional skills and gain all the experience he needs for the future.

“I want to inspire many people in the future. I want someone to said because of you, I didn’t give up.”

Khedr Wanas

Khedr received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Cairo University. He has strong belief in the power of knowledge and how it can contribute to change the reality. His professional areas of interest focus on social entrepreneurship, social development, behavioral economics, public policy, economic empowerment and gender.

He currently works as research assistant at the regional search and selection team at Ashoka Arab World. Khedr contributes to the search and identification of leading changemakers across the the MENA region. Moreover, he supports them to showcase their work and scale their impact.

Khedr published his first peer-reviewed publication for his work in behavioral economics in August 2021. As an undergraduate, Khedr co-founded the first student-led debate initiative in Cairo. In addition, he was selected to be the president of one of the elite student activities at Cairo University, Model of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (MESE).

Along this journey, Khedr has acquired a multidisciplinary set of skills, including but not limited to: research, facilitation, data collection/analysis, economic analysis, and visionary leadership. In the long term, Khedr aspires to design evidence-based policies and interventions to address the complex community challenges.

“Knowledge is not power, it is only potential. Applying that knowledge is power.” – Takeda Shingen