Past speakers
Faizul, Bangladesh
The Founder and Head of Training & Development at Penny Bee Solutions.
Saleha, Pakistan
A second-year International Relations Student, studying in the UK
Sean, UK
Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry student at the University of St Andrews, BAME Officer for the North East Fife Constituency Labour Party.
Maureen, UK
3rd year Medical Student
Natalia Sikora
Amber, UK
Chair of University of Manchester Feminist Collective
Arunima, India
A college freshman from Bangalore, India
Norwyn, UK
Recent History graduate of the University of Southampton, currently studying a Master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Gustavo, Brazil
A third-year Economics and Finance student at the University of St Andrews, Scotland
Ben, UK
History graduate from the University of Exeter now studying for a Masters at LSE
Lea, Germany
Fashion Design student at Atelier Savard
Stuthi, India
17-year-old intersectional feminist
Tala, Palestine
A medical student at St Andrews, from Jordan & Palestine but she grew up all around the Middle East & Africa.
Artur, Poland
Law student currently doing his postgraduate degree at the University of St Andrews in Scotland
Ankur, Bangladesh
A-levels student in Bangladesh
Marysia, Poland
14-year-old IB student, leader of Happy Kid Mission
Divine, Kenya
Medical Student at the University of St Andrews
Serena, India
A 12-year-old Indian living in Warsaw
Aleksandra, Poland
A 14-year-old IB student
Priyonti, Bangladesh
15-year-old student from Bangladesh
Head of Art
Kazi, Bangladesh
A student from Bangladesh
Hania, Poland
A 14-year-old IB student
Pola, Poland
A 14-year-old IB student, GAM Junior leader and a climate activist
Michał, Poland
Student of European Law and research assistant at Bocconi University in Milan
Student of European Law and research assistant at Bocconi University in Milan
Kashmiri, Pakistan
An 18-year-old Pakistani Refugee living and studying in Italy
Sang, Myanmar
A former refugee from Burma/Myanmar. She’s currently living in Oklahoma City, works at The Spero Project
Pum, Myanmar
Pum is a former refugee from Myanmar, currently working in HVAC (Heating Ventilation, Air Conditioning) industry as a product engineer.
Robert , Poland
Guest Speakers
Dr. Leyla Hussein
OBE is a psychotherapist specialising in supporting survivors of sexual abuse. She is an international lecturer on female genital mutilation (FGM) and gender rights and recognised as one of the key experts on the issue globally. She is the founder of The Dahlia Project, the UK’s first specialist therapeutic service for FGM survivors. She regularly appears as an expert commentator on women’s rights and health, with articles published in The Guardian, Cosmopolitan and The Huffington Post. In 2019, Leyla was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for her work in tackling female gender mutilation and gender equality. Her current project, The Girl Generation, focuses on the importance of the emotional wellbeing of activists in the field working with survivors of FGM.
Leyla is participating because misogyny and sexism continue to cause irreparable harm to women and girls all over the world on a daily basis and we must continue to fight back. Her talk will focus on race, patriarchy and the importance of access to mental health services and wellbeing.
George Abualzulof
Mr. Abualzulof is a Palestinian artist and a Human Rights defender with over 25 years of experience in the field of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Mr. Abualzulof is currently the Senior Human Rights Advisor to the United Nation Resident Coordinator Office and the United Nations Country Team in Jamaica and the Bahamas. In this function he supports the United Nation Agencies, Funds and Programmes as well as the Government of Jamaica and civil society in promoting and protecting human rights In Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Mr. Abu Al-Zulof worked with UNICEF in Yemen and then as a representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) from 2008-2016. In 2016 he moved to Qatar to manage the regional UN Human Rights Training and Documentation center for the Arab Region and South West Asia.
Mr. Abualzulof served also as the General Director of Defence for Children International / Palestine Section for 10 years and as a justice for children specialist for UNICEF in Yemen for five years, during which he provided technical assistance to UNICEF partners in Libya, Iraq and Lebanon in developing a child rights monitoring mechanism on grave child rights violations as well as in reviewing some of the child rights legislation in the region and in preparing country reports to the committee on the rights of the child. He wrote several research papers and articles on children deprived of their liberty in systems of institutionalized discrimination, Juvenile Death Penalty (JDP), and Torture of children in MENA region. He is a well-known trainer on Human rights, IHL, Juvenile justice and specialist in legislative reform.
Mr. Abu Al-Zulof holds a Master’s degree on Children’s Rights from University of Freiburg and Institute of Children’s Rights in Sion - Switzerland
Sonia Piórek
Sonia Piórek used to lead Team ESTEEM, a group created to participate in Solar Decathlon Challenge Middle East - a competition for university teams to design and build houses of the future, powered solely by solar energy. It involves over 100 students and academia members at Heriot-Watt University, organises prototype construction in Edinburgh campus and cooperates with over 30 companies. During working in ESTEEM and finishing education Sonia has started working at the Founder Institute, the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator and VC Lab program authors.
Kaja Pośnik
Hi! My name is Kaja and I am a first year Neuroscience student at University College London. My interest in Neuroscience started in high school, when I attended a Sixth Form College in the UK on a British Alumni Society scholarship. I am mostly interested in mental disorders and combining this field of research with my passion to the performing arts, mainly musical theatre. I have also recently become curious about the area of neurotechnology and how it can be developed to aid people affected by various health conditions. I am really excited to be able to share my insight into the neuroscience of meditation with the Happy Kid Mission community!