Lilian Elekwachi

Lilian Elekwachi (32), from Nigeria, is studying at the University of Massachusetts for a doctorate in the field of Environmental Science. She plans to graduate in 2023.

Raised in the coastal regions of Nigeria, Lilian has firsthand experience of the importance of fish in the Nigerian diet and the developing aquaculture industry that supports this need. She is herself the manager of a local fish farm and has over 7 years of work experience in this sector. In 2018 she completed a master’s in sustainable aquaculture at University of St. Andrews, Scotland, which gave her valuable insights to the issues and solutions of the industry.

Currently, due to the absence of cold-chain and electricity, the most common preservative method for fish is traditional smoking. In addition to environmental issues, this causes respiratory health issues for the women who work in the smokeries and decreases the nutritional value of the fish products, a primary food for local children. Her thesis aims to provide valuable research and viable strategies to improving the fish smoking technologies, empower women, and improve nutrition for children.

Upon graduation, Lilian will return to Nigeria, where she hopes to be recognized as a female industrial leader, equal to her male counterparts. She also plans to extend her outreach beyond the fish farms to local schools where she will mentor young women who wish to become involved in Aquaculture. In her own words: “I am not doing the PhD for myself but to help other women.”

Shymaa Bedaiwy

Shymaa Allam (38) is pursuing Doctorate studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the field of Global Inclusion and Social Development. She expects to graduate in 2023.

In 2014, Shymaa completed a Master’s in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, and has more than 15 years’ experience in Social Development and Financial Inclusion in Egypt and the Arab countries. She assisted in drafting Microfinance law for private sector companies; she worked as a policy development specialist at a USAID funded activity on Micro-Enterprise Finance (EMF); and she has coordinated many of Sanabel’s project (the Microfinance Network for Arab countries).

Shymaa’s current thesis is on “The impact of Microfinance regulations on empowering women in Egypt”, aims to map the challenges and opportunities for women within the Microfinance market in order to prevent over-indebtedness and other potential harm to women entrepreneurs.

Her future plan is to be an expert in poverty alleviation issues for women. She wants to continue analyzing the impact of economic policies on the welfare of women. She hopes to do this as a university staff member, so that she also has the opportunity to teach the next generation. In her words, she is “a woman, helping women, help women.”

In 2022 Shymaa published in the Journal of International Development: An evaluation of Egyptian microfinance laws and regulations preventing overindebtedness of women.

Maria Harker

Maria Harker (28) is currently studying a Master of Public Administration in the field of Economic, Social & Political Development at Columbia University. 

Born and raised in Colombia, Maria completed her Bachelor’s degree in Law at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.

Since the beginning of her career as a lawyer, she has designed and implemented innovative strategies for the inclusion of women and youth. She worked for the Program of Action for Equality and Social Inclusion (PAIIS), where she advocated for the rights of people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, and people in prison. Furthermore, as a public officer of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare she was in charge of the implementation of international treaties for the protection of children. She worked on cases related to international child abduction, right of access, and child migration.  

Among many initiatives, Maria created a project called “Las niñas y los niños opinan” in Bogota, a project that advocated for the rights of children of same-sex parents, in response to legal and judicial initiatives to prohibit same-sex adoption in Colombia. The goal of this project was to make sure that the children’s opinions and experiences were heard in the political debate about same-sex marriage and adoption in Colombia. She also co-founded a research group to advocate for the rights of women and children victims of domestic violence..

At Columbia University, Maria has remained committed to addressing the challenges faced by women and children. As Vice-president of the Latin American Student Association and Research Assistant at Columbia's Earth Institute she is discussing key policy issues to enable political, economic, and social inclusion of youth and women. 

Maria has a strong belief in empowering the voices of the young. In her own words: "Children will be the guardians of the peace we strive for."

Hourie Tafech

Hourie Tafech (28) is completing Doctorate studies in Global Affairs at Rutgers University. She hopes to graduate in 2021.

Hourie's experiences of being Palestinian born and raised in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, have driven her to achieve academic success, both as a woman and as a refugee. She has gained international recognition for her work. She was selected as one of 40 young leaders to represent young refugees in the UNHCR annual consultation in Geneva.  She was also invited by the European Parliament in Malta to speak about her journey as a refugee woman. Up to date, she has created and implemented successful interventions such as Spark 15, an organization that supports refugee students' access to higher education. She was also a member of the Migrant Women association Malta in which she worked on different empowering projects, such as raising funds to build a school in Darfur.

Hourie' dissertation aims to focus on refugee entrepreneurship in camps,  giving distinctive attention to refugee woman entrepreneurs.

Hourie's ultimate objective is to create a startup that would give support to female entrepreneurs in refugee camps in the Middle East. In the first instance, the objective of these small businesses is "just to survive," but Hourie dreams of helping these women expand their businesses for a life outside the camps. Not only does she aim to focus on the economic factors of entrepreneurship, but Hourie plans on: offering workshops and skills training to women and girls; finding ways of supporting childcare for female entrepreneurs (including raising funds for schools in camps), and addressing cultural perceptions of the role of the woman. Hourie is committed to the female refugee community at large. In her own words, it's about "supporting more than just one person; it's not just about me, but I try to pass it on to others.

Karen Dias

Karen Dias (33) is currently studying for a Masters in Fine Arts at The New School - Parsons, New York. She is expected to graduate in 2021.

In 2007, Karen completed her Bachelor’s in Mass Media with a major in Journalism at St. Xavier’s University in Mumbai. During her 12 year career as a photojournalist, primarily based in her home-country India, Karen has consistently pursued stories about human rights and environmental issues through a feminist lens.

Karen has worked with a long list of international news outlets (The Washington Post, The Guardian, Bloomberg News, Al Jazeera, BBC, and National Geographic) that have published her work all over the globe. She has documented stories such as state-sponsored fake encounters in the state of Manipur, an anti-mining indigenous resistance movement in Odisha and acid attack survivors in Mumbai among many others. 

Through her current studies, Karen is exploring other mediums like sculpture, video and installation whilst continuing her engagement with  photography, and to better understand the power and responsibility of the media and to critique structural and cultural biases represented in photography and journalism. In the future, besides continuing her own studio practice, Karen hopes to build a pedagogical approach  to improve inclusivity and access to art (through residencies, workshops and educational art programs with schools and universities) especially for young girls and women. 

Karen is a rare storyteller and uses this quote by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe to explain her ideology: “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Shatha El nakib

Shatha El nakib (28) is currently pursuing Doctorate studies in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Shatha’s focus is on sexual and reproductive health, specifically the impacts of child marriage and early childbearing among refugees in the Middle East and North Africa region, and how these effects are impacted in humanitarian settings. Shatha aims to graduate in 2022.

Born and raised in Egypt, Shatha completed premedical studies at the American University of Cairo in 2012, followed by a Master’s in Public Health with a specialization in Epidemiology at Columbia University in 2015.

While working at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Shatha was responsible for designing, planning and executing activities related to sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence among refugees and host communities. At the Population Council in Cairo, Shatha worked with young people in rural Egypt, as well as garment workers in industrial zones on family planning, as well as assessing health services provided to Syrian refugees and Jordanians in Jordan. In addition to her professional experience, Shatha has held numerous volunteer positions, including in an NGO in Cairo that operates an orphanage, leading a micro-credit program, and working with mothers and children on increasing knowledge on gender-based violence, health and hygiene.

Upon completion of her PhD, Shatha will return to Egypt to work in the sexual and reproductive health space. Eventually she dreams of becoming Minister of Health where she could continue to have an enormous impact on the health of women and children.