AINE CASSIDY

I am part of the Surviving to Thriving Project with the British Red Cross, supporting unaccompanied young people seeking asylum. I also teach English to speakers of other languages and am passionate about the importance of increasing access to education.

Creating a community of learners and combating the misrepresentation of the refugee ‘crisis’ in the mainstream media is such an important mission. I began as a volunteer teacher with COB and am excited to help the organisation continue to grow and succeed as an Assistant Coordinator.

Conversation Over Borders helped me feel less alone during lockdown. Now that I’m back in the UK, it has helped me maintain links to home (Lebanon), as our learners often remind me of friendly neighbourhood faces. Because this is such an important space for me, I wanted to help make sure it runs smoothly and this opportunity reaches more and more people!

I have taken up the role of Assistant Project Coordinator and International Outreach Officer, and I can’t wait to see how far Conversation Over Borders will go.⠀

Lily Steel

Having roots spread across the world I really appreciate the work that Conversation over Borders does to humanise migration and create meaningful connections bilaterally.

My academic background is in Media and Communications and with the combination of the two, I look forward to creating content for the Conversation over Borders social media channels.

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Leoni

Almaz-Reusing

NGOs have been pivotal in helping refugee & asylum seekers in Europe over the last few years. I have worked with a few across England, so when I heard of Conversations over Borders, I really wanted to get involved with the efforts.

Having recently finished my MA in Gender, Violence and Conflict I have taken on the role as Communications Coordinator, and will be helping to plan content and coordinate the social media channels!

AAliyah Burns

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I recently spent 6 months working in an NGO in Paris, helping refugees find employment. This experience completely changed my life and helped me reverse the paradigm of pity and victimhood that I had internalised from media representations, into one of compassion, positive and productive engagement.

I’m very happy to now be working to produce media content for COB alongside studying a Masters in Migration Studies, as I am aware of the impact media representations can have on our perception of refugees & asylum seekers! We must not let the dominant narrative surrounding refugees be of fear, racism or exclusion, but rather of empathy and solidarity.

Juliette howard

Alimam has been accessing classes with Conversation Over Borders since we first launched. He is currently writing a book, and shared his powerful story with us in a short film available under the 'Stories' tab.

Alimam has supported our efforts from the beginning, and has now joined the Board as a Trustee to bring fresh perspective to what Conversation Over Borders provides and guide our decision-making processes as a charity. 

Alimam Mohammed

Shanze Shah is the Co-Founder and Vice-Chair of the Network of Migration Matters.

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Her background is in Law and she holds an LLM and has passed the Barre. She has worked in many different national contexts, including as a Legal Intern with the Goodwill Caravan in Greece.

Shanze shah

Osamah Dhaiban

Osamah has been accessing classes with Conversation Over Borders since May 2020.

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He stepped up to become a Trustee at a really exciting point in the charity's growth, to help lead the charity into its future. We are excited to have him on the team, helping to guide the direction of the charity.