Kinda Hawasli

Kinda Hawasli is a fellow in Refugees International’s Refugee Fellows Program. She is also the Social Unit Manager at the Syrian Dialogue Centre, a leading political and social think tank based in Türkiye, and Co-Founder of the AlSalam Institute for Women’s Studies (SWS)—the first Syrian think tank established and led by female experts. With a…

Kauther Alhusainy is a fellow in Refugees International’s Refugee Fellows Program. She has worked across legal, humanitarian, and policy settings with organisations including UN Women, UNICEF, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and has held fellowships with Statefree e.V. and Humanity in Action. Her legal advocacy focuses on the racialised impacts of European migration…

Ismail Hussein Ismail (Ismail Saxafi) is a fellow in Refugees International’s Refugee Fellows Program. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Aider Refugee Initiative, where he leads policy-driven programs focused on refugee empowerment, youth inclusion, and child protection. His work advocates for refugee-led solutions and champions the full implementation of Uganda’s Refugee Act—especially the…

Hanin Ahmed is a fellow in Refugees International’s Refugee Fellows Program. She currently works as the external relations officer for Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), advocating for the ERRS and other mutual aid groups. In the early days of Sudan’s crisis, Hanin established the Old Omdurman Emergency Room, providing critical aid in food, medicine, GBV…

Mohammed Naeem is the Senior Director for Advocacy Strategy at Refugees International. Previously, Mohammed served as the Deputy Director of Strategy and Partnerships at the American Immigration Council, where he was a founding staff-member of the Center for Inclusion and Belonging (CIB) team. During his tenure, Mohammed helped build the nation’s largest immigration multimedia campaign,…

Shizah Kashif is the communications and campaigns associate at Refugees International. Guided by her Kashmiri heritage and upbringing between the Middle East and South Asia, her dedication to refugee rights and empowerment began at a young age. She has assisted on Syrian refugee relief efforts in the Gulf, and volunteered with families and children in…

Lucky Karim is a fellow at Refugees International and a refugee and human rights activist from Burma (Myanmar). She lived for six years in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh and has worked for a number of international organizations  to serve her community in Cox’s Bazar before she was resettled to the United States in…

Masooda Qazi is a paralegal at the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office. When Kabul fell in August 2021, she was working for the U.S. Embassy, handling employees background checks, sensitive cases related to corruption, counterintelligence, and harassment within the Embassy. A 2012 graduate of Kabul University, Masooda began her legal career at the Ministry…

Jomana O. Abunahla is a fellow at Refugees International and a women, peace, and security scholar. She has worked with the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), meticulously documenting human rights violations against women and girls in Gaza. As a member of the World Bank Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE)…

William Adrián Clavijo Vitto is a fellow at Refugees International. He is the president and founder of the Venezuela Global Association, the first association founded and led by Venezuelans in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, aimed at promoting the social and economic integration of Venezuelan migrants and refugees and those of other nationalities…