Hailey Breitenfeld is an American international early childhood care and education professional, currently teaching first grade and kindergarten students in Monrovia, Liberia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in applied developmental psychology from UCLA, and she holds a master’s in international education from New York University. Hailey’s passion for education has led her to volunteer and work all over the world as a specialist in teacher training, curriculum development, teaching, and collecting and analyzing industry data.  She also served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, training English teachers and developing language clubs for primary students.  During her latest work in Liberia Hailey has noticed a lack of support and preparation for pre-Kindergarten children in the existing education and childcare system.  Her project, Strong Starts for Success, attempts to address this by providing Liberia’s youngest children with a community-based, holistic education that is safe, high-quality, and affordable. 

Aisha Abdullahi Bubah is a psychologist with over six years’ experience practicing psychotherapy in various sectors of mental health, including addiction rehabilitation, educational, psychiatric care, and community mental health. She studied psychology as an undergraduate in Ghana, then traveled to Bangalore to complete her master’s in counseling psychology.  Following graduation Aisha worked at a private addiction rehabilitation center, where many of her clients were young adults.  She then volunteered at an IDP camp in Abuja, Nigeria, training lay counselors how to identify early warning signs of mental illness and make referrals for professional care within refugee populations. From these formative experiences Aisha gained the inspiration for her social enterprise The Sunshine Series, a mental health services provider in Nigeria.  While Aisha works as a lead psychologist at her company, she has recently also founded a nonprofit, Idimma Health Initiative, to provide mental health services for those who couldn't possibly afford them. Idimma’s offering is two-fold: to provide vocational skills for those suffering—but able to professionally function—with mental illness and their caregivers, and to train lay counselors working with the most vulnerable people in Nigeria. Aisha is a 2016 YALI fellow and the national president of YALI RLC Nigeria Alumni Chapter 2018.

Gcina Dlamini is from the Kingdom of Eswatini. He graduated from the University of Swaziland with a degree in agricultural economics and agribusiness management in 2013, and shortly thereafter co-founded his company Smiling Through Investments (STIN).  STIN is an agribusiness that employs 'climate-smart agriculture'—a methodology and philosophy that takes into consideration the sustainability of farming and the environment. STIN has been recognized for its pioneering approach to farming in Eswatini, by both the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, and Pitch@Palace in London in 2018. In 2019 Gcina co-founded his nonprofit, Eswatini Youth Biodiversity Network (EYBN), because the success of STIN demonstrated that climate-smart agriculture is the future of farming, and that more farmers in Eswatini need to be taught to farm under this vital paradigm. Gcina cares deeply about biodiversity and nature in general, and he is determined to teach his compatriots how to save their country’s biggest resource: its land. Gcina was part of the 2018 Mandela Washington fellowship and is a YALI South graduate.  He currently resides in Manzini.

Hamdiya Katchirika is a women's rights activist and entrepreneur from Lome, Togo.  She graduated from Lome University with a bachelor’s in journalism and intended to work in media, but she was subjected to a degree of sexual harassment that made it impossible to work comfortably in her desired industry. Hamdiya instead began work at an NGO run by another Togolese woman, and started an eponymous blog about her experiences as a young professional in Lome.  She was surprised by the overwhelming response her blog prompted from other women who had experienced similar gender-based descrimination, and Hamdiya was inspired to find ways to support and empower urban and rural Togolese women alike.  In 2019 Hamdiya created Empower Ladies, a nonprofit aimed at dismantling the stigma around menstruation and increasing access to menstrual health products in rural Togo.  Hamdiya wants to establish a sustainable model whereby her team teaches rural women how to create their own reusable feminne health products, and those women can in turn create and sell the products within their locales.  Hamdiya is both a Mandela Washington fellow and a YALI Dakar alumna.

Pratiksha Jawanjale and J Wegner are experienced development professionals who met during their post-graduate diploma in social innovation management at Amani Institute.  Pratiksha had entered the program with a desire to investigate the systemic underfunding of grassroots organisations in India.  J had come to explore the same trend more generally: why was there a lack of trust towards grassroots NGO's? The two bonded over a shared desire to understand this seeming discrepancy, and in 2021 founded TrustRoots, a nonprofit on a mission to promote and facilitate trust-based partnerships between funders and grassroots organisations. TrustRoots aims to create a healthier, more effective, and more equitable development sector. How? By facilitating access to general operating support and capacity building opportunities through a peer-reviewed platform that centres on the needs and opinions of impacted communities, rather than donors. Pratiksha is currently part of the corporate advisory vertical at Sattva Consulting, where she supports corporates in making sound CSR investments aligned to impact and compliance. She works on forging valuable partnerships with diverse stakeholders within the development ecosystem, and is committed to creating lasting social impact on the ground. Pratiksha is a Mechanical Engineer by training, and a former Gandhi Fellow and Amani Institute graduate. J has worked with a variety of social impact organisations, including UNESCO and DW Akademie, as well as several small social enterprises across more than ten countries. J combines past journalistic work with extensive experience in project management, cross-country research, and fundraising.  navigating the intersection of quality journalism, social entrepreneurship, and power-sensitive partner relations to identify more sustainable solutions to global inequity. J is a Carlo Schmid Fellowship graduate with a dual master's in Development Studies and Political Science from Sciences Po Paris and FU Berlin, respectively.

Janina Peter is the founder of Bridging Gaps, a nonprofit that is helping facilitate microloans and entrepreneurial training within underserved communities primarily in Africa and South-East Asia, with the goal to expand across the global south. Janina studied business administration and development economics in Germany before becoming a freelance food systems specialist. Over the last few years she has consulted for the UN World Food Programme, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, The Hunger Project, and Thought For Food, among others.  She has also worked with multiple private sector organizations on building sustainability strategies and facilitating their partnerships with nonprofits.  As a food systems consultant Janina has worked with many communities to strengthen their food security, using methods such as human-centered design, systems practice, and storytelling. In 2022 Janina founded Bridging Gaps, to help financially struggling locals gain microloans in order to get sustainable projects started in areas where they are needed the most. Janina sees Bridging Gaps as an innovative approach towards reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, namely Zero Poverty and Zero Hunger. Janina is also an Amani Institute Social Innovation Management fellow and Co-Lead of their Food Systems Circle.

Kuol Arou Kuol is a peacebuilder and youth activist in South Sudan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in procurement and logistics from Kampala University. Although Kuol considered a career related to his degree, he has always felt compelled to work with South Sudan’s displaced and vulnerable groups, in particular youth.  Kuol himself had a childhood that was significantly affected by war, and he feels strongly about helping others still displaced or otherwise struggling as a result of 2013's civil war. The latest conflict in South Sudan has caused people to flee from villages and refugee camps, and into cities for protection and the promise of livelihood.  But urban areas are now overwhelmed with young people and too few job opportunities, making them havens for crime, while villages, once the vibrant food-baskets of the country, turn to ghost towns.  In 2018 Kuol co-founded SPEAK, an organization that facilitates conflict-resolution between refugees and their host communities, and among refugees themselves. In light of SPEAK’s success, since last year Kuol has been aiming his efforts at starting a new nonprofit, ARTE (Action for Rural Transformation and Empowerment), which attempts to draw migration back into rural locales by teaching groups how to sustainably fish and farm. Kuol is an alumnus of the Peacebuilding Institute Rwanda, YALI East, the African Changemakers Fellowship, Ashoka Leaders Academy, Ubuntu United Nations, and he is a generation change fellow at the United States Institute of Peace.

Kwame Amoabeng was born in the small town of Osenase in eastern Ghana. He excelled in school and left Ghana to pursue his bachelor’s degree in economics and management science from Voronezh State University in Russia. He also holds a master’s in transport and maritime management from the University of Antwerp. Kwame’s interest and talent for fashion can be traced back to his time living in Europe. And, after a decade-long career in human resources within oil and gas, Kwame has turned his attention back to fashion: in 2018 he founded Odina, a sustainable men and women’s fashion line based in Accra. Since 2021 a percentage of Odina’s profits have gone towards building the Odina Foundation, a charitable branch of Odina that teaches vulnerable members of the community how to make clothing and other products from textile waste, offcut materials, and deadstock fabrics.  Kwame hopes to train 50-100 widows and youths each year to become tailors and seamstresses who uphold Odina’s conscious-fashion ethos.

Maribel Rodriguez grew up in New York City as the daughter of an immigrant parent from Colombia and an American parent from Puerto Rico. She studied photography as an undergraduate at The Rochester Institute of Technology, then studied social enterprise at American University for her master’s. The idea for Maribel’s budding organization, Love 4 Immigrants, came during her graduate capstone project, out of the desire to see immigrant stories depicted in humane, dignified ways.  Love 4 Immigrants seeks to create a community and platform for artists to create and showcase their work, positively shaping the narrative around immigrant topics. Founded in 2017, Love 4 immigrants has had two main larger-scale shows: the Virtual Art Healing Speaker Series in 2020, which considered themes of identity and healing, and Un-weaved Stories in 2021, which explored themes of family and storytelling, and was facilitated by VR.  Maribel was a member of the youth curatorial group for the MoMA’s exhibit From Grunge to Grace in 2007, and she also served as a mentor at LearnServe International in 2018. Maribel currently works in public library administration in Maryland.

Renad Algorani is co-founder of Circle of Hope, an emerging organization that aims to spread mental health awareness and provide treatment resources to the people of Jordan, Renad’s native country. During her psychology degree at the University of Jordan, Renad noticed a concerning trend.  The school-based programs and initiatives she participated in helped identify and diagnose certain mental illnesses within participating students, but there was very little support provided as far as suggested treatment or next steps. Renad began working as a trainer and supervisor with Saaya Health, and as a Child Safeguarding Assistant at SOS-Jordan, but she also wanted to do something about the mental health treatment support gap she discovered at university.  In 2019 she created Circle of Hope, which so far has worked to provide peer support sessions, counselor training, and access to treatment services via their Mental Health Services Providers Network. Renad has also participated in the MEPI-SLP (Student Leader Program), and she is an alumna of the Lazord Fellowship. She is also a certified Social and Emotional Intelligence Coach by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) with over three years’ experience in the mental health and youth sector.

Taher Qatanani, a fellow Jordanian and the other co-founder of Circle of Hope, is an engineering graduate with extensive experience in NGO work. Taher has over eight years of experience in human resources, project management, proposal writing, MEAL, and research at NGOs. Taher is an AIESEC and Lazord Fellowship alumnus. He is currently working as an operations manager with Third Party Services and as a project management advisor with ArchiSmile.

Stark Bode is a Togolese entrepreneur and change-maker striving to eradicate extreme poverty in northern Togo.  From an early age he was exceptionally motivated to succeed and transcend the poverty and marginalization he experienced in childhood.  Stark graduated from Kara University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and international finance and later studied marketing and communications at Lehigh University in the United States.  In 2017 Stark founded his own communications company in Togo, STAR-LABS, which provides advertising consultation and sign services to its clients. But Stark has been just as ambitious in his humanitarian work as he has in his professional life, believing himself to be uniquely positioned to give back to the community he was raised in. He served for two years as a volunteer at Molab, where he traveled Togo teaching computer science to 1,000 underprivileged rural students. In 2020 Stark created North Change Makers (NCM), an organization striving to foster agricultural entrepreneurship for women and youth via capacity-building training and livestock loaning programs.  He is also a member of the International Leadership Association, and a Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders and YALI Dakar alumnus.

Beka (Baker) Isabirye was born in eastern Uganda and since young adulthood has been volunteering for community development programs in Uganda, including those at Restless Development, Irise Uganda, and Dance4life.  From his time volunteering and getting to know hundreds of children, he noticed that rural children were at a disadvantage to their urban counterparts. Youth in urban schools with ICT programs were more interested in school because they were learning how to use computers, and therefore could research their academic interests as well as school and job opportunities outside their locale. Baker decided to tackle this support gap in a direct way: drive laptops to rural schools and equip teachers to show their students how to use them.  This year (2022) Baker founded ICT4Education, a mobile computer lab that addresses the existing knowledge gap in computer literacy among learners from rural schools in eastern Uganda.  Baker is also a YALI East graduate and currently resides in Jinja.