Tage Participants

Paul is a high school English and media studies teacher based in Toronto, Ontario. He is a lifelong gamer who holds a Master’s degree in Educational Technology (MET) and is a PhD candidate in York University’s Language, Culture and Teaching program with a research focus on video games and education. He designed The Ward Game and is currently co-designing Blind Protocol, an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) to instruct high school students on privacy and surveillance. His case studies on The Ward Game and Gone Home will be published in an upcoming book from ETC Press.

He is co-director of the Toronto Student Film Festival,  an active member of the IGDA Learning and Education Games Special Interest Group, and on the advisory board for GameTrain Learning. He speaks, writes and consults on teaching and learning with educational games.

Ms Danika B. Littlechild, Vice President, Canadian Commission for UNESCO

Danika B. Littlechild lives in Maskwacis, Alberta. She chaired the Sectoral Commission on Culture, Communication and Information of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO from 2007-2011. Danika currently practices law in Ermineskin Cree Nation, working with Indigenous Peoples in a variety of areas including governance, Indigenous legal orders, environment, and international law. Danika also serves as consulting legal counsel for the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC, www.treatycouncil.org), an Indigenous NGO with General Consultative Status (ECOSOC), which represents Indigenous Peoples from North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Zina is a passionate Algerian advocate for Innovation in Education. She is the co-founder of the Algerian Center for Social Entrepreneurship, a member of the Cultural Innovators Network, co-founder of the Butterfly Effect, and project director of Wadjihni and agenda manager of the Innovative Teachers Academy. Zina has trained hundreds of people from different backgrounds on personal development, global citizenship, leadership and social entrepreneurship.

Aytaj Pashayeva, entrepreneur, youth worker, and education specialist, currently works for the Institute of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan under the Ministry of Education. She aims at expanding research capacity in the field of education in Azerbaijan to develop reliable evidence for policymaking. As a member of Trade Union of Education Workers of the Azerbaijan Republic (AITUCEW), Aytaj collaborates with educational professionals of the country on building educational curricula and activities that would promote global citizenship, peace and sustainable development.

A catalyst of social enterprise ecosystems, an organizer of alternative learning communities, an agile learning facilitator, entrepreneur and social entrepreneurship trainer. Nariman is the founder of the Egyptian Network for Self-Directed Education (SDE), Egypt's first Self-Directed Education movement, a network of inter-connected, interdependent alternative education spaces that apply the culture, values, and tools of SDE. Before founding the Egyptian Network for SDE, Nariman toured India, a similar socio-cultural context to Egypt, documenting stories of alternative education schools and universities speaking with parents, learners and founders of such organizations while consulting with Education-focused social enterprises on areas of operations management, program design, and impact assessment. For four years, Nariman joined Ashoka Innovators for the Public where she contributed to social change making through her role as the Regional Search and Selection Representative at Ashoka Arab World. Before Ashoka, she co-founded and led the Ain Shams University chapter for the international organization Enactus, formerly known as SIFE. Additionally, she sat on the board of “Dentists on the Rise Association” and represented Arab youth on several occasions across the Arab world. The Arab Thought Foundation chose Nariman for an honorary position as the Egypt Youth Ambassador for the years 2013 and 2014. She currently works with organizations like Education Square, Soliya, Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Agile Learning Centers to co-create programs that focus on re-imagining and re-creating education.

Mareike Hachemer is a high school teacher for German, English, and Drama and at the International Department of the Ministry of Education in Hesse, Germany. It is her mission to empower teachers and encourage them to connect learning to activities that help achieve the Global Goals. She is a member of TeachSDGs and the Pestalozzi Programme, the Council of Europe program for the professional development of teachers and education actors and as a UNESCO delegate for the role of teachers in Peace and Sustainable Development. As a top 50 finalist for the Global Teacher Prize 2015 and Teacher Prize Jury Member 2017, she supports an education that fosters intercultural competences and active citizenship. Mareike is a Fellow of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in Kansas. Her ideas are published in articles and public speeches such as "Teaching - The Most Important Profession in the World," given at TEDxHeidelberg.

A dedicated young professional in the area of promoting human rights and gender equality, with a focus on the rights of people with a minority background. Her work in Turkey as manager of the Greek cultural center in Istanbul provided her with an opportunity to work towards promoting a better understanding between the Greek and Turkish societies through culture, formal and non-formal education, and to contribute to building relations of trust and peaceful co-existence in the Eastern Mediterranean. More recently, her work as Programme Officer for a major public benefit foundation in Greece has allowed her to work on NGO projects that promote human rights, antidiscrimination, gender equality and democratic values with a budget totaling approximately €2mil.

She is currently finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Oxford on archaeological heritage protection in the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Ottoman Empire of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ms Amanat BOPARAI, India

Amanat is a motivated young professional working at the intersection of Education Policy and Technology in India and Africa.

Having worked with private MNCs, NGOs, social ventures and the Government, she possesses an extremely diverse work experience. She sits on the board of The Reformist Social Venture in South Africa as the Director of Development. She also serves as the Fundraising and Development Officer for the Ghana Health and Education Initiative, a United States NGO based out of Humjibre, Ghana. She has also recently started consulting with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. Her private sector commitment involves working for the Fortune 500 financial services company American Express. She has also worked as a research scholar having published technical and policy papers at International conferences like IEEE. She was recently selected as one of the 20 delegates worldwide to be a part of the World Governance Expedition to the US.

Ms Nirisoa Malalatiana Razafinimanana, Madagascar

For two years, she served as Gender Equity Coordinator for a USAID-funded project. As such, she identified gender-based barriers and constraints to access health care services, as well as opportunities to increase gender equality throughout the project.

Her seven years of engagement in managing projects on reproductive health and rights for youth with International HIV AIDS Alliance, the Youth Coalition, Population Services International, UNICEF, various USAID-funded projects, etc. all drawing from her personal life experiences and the connectedness with the struggles of ordinary women and girls especially in poor communities. In January 2015, she decided to leave her full-time job to focus on supporting and ensuring the emergence of a strong youth led the organisation in Madagascar and is now serving as the Executive Director of Youth First, an organization she founded in 2011. In 2007, she was appointed as UN Youth Spokesperson for MDGs and had served as Oxfam Action Partner in Madagascar from 2007-2009. She is a 2015 VitalVoice Lead fellow and was part of the Global Women in Management (GWIM 60) organized by PlanUSA in June 2014.

Since February 2016, she is working in an International Consultancy firm for the Ideas42, an American Firm working in the evaluation of a cash transfer program funded by the world Bank.

Derived from her love of science and culture, Sofia has dedicated her career to education among disadvantaged sectors in Europe, Asia, North and Latin America. She has been a professor of sociocultural theory; the Co-founder of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts and the Alliances Manager at Proacceso, to use the educational benefits of technology. She studied Humanities at UPF in Barcelona and a Masters in Communication of Science at the ITESO. Sofia represented Mexico in the Ship for Worlds Youth. She is now the Lead researcher in Education at Connovo, to scale the impact of social ventures that work.

Hajar IDRISSI is a 24-year-old Moroccan, currently a doctorate student in the Department of ‘Discourse, Creativity, and Society’ at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, University of Mohamed Ibn Abdellah, Fes-Sais, Morocco working on “The Role of Citizenship Education In Promoting Democratic Values.”

She is an active member of the youth socialist organization of the Party of Progress and Socialism that defends the higher interests of the nation and the rights of the people, especially the working class, the disadvantaged and marginalized groups and all those who contribute to the production process.

She has been selected as the only Arab young leader in the “Third Hague Peace Conference: Contest Essay” in The Hague, Netherlands. Also, she was also selected to participate in the “Second Civic Education Conference” in Tunisia and the “Youth Exchangers Program” in Egypt under the theme: the Political Representation of Women in Politics.

Ms Clarissa Rios, is a Peruvian scientist who has recently finished her Ph.D. Her work involves the areas of international development, science, education, professional development and women empowerment. Her global experience has allowed her to live and learn about science and educational systems in Germany, the Nordic Countries, Latin America and Australia. She is the founder and director of the social enterprise "Ekpapalek" (www.ekpapalek.com). Her organization focuses on empowering Latin American students by offering both a program of professional mentorships and a program of women empowerment (http://tinyurl.com/PitchEkpapalek). To date, her organization has helped more than a hundred students to find their career path, win scholarships abroad and gain the self-esteem needed to initiate a professional career. Magazines, TV programs and international organizations such as United Nations have recognized their proven ability where they are also ambassadors of the Sustainable Development Goals in Peru. She is an international speaker, a UN Women champion for women's economic empowerment. As the director of Ekpapalek, she has represented her country at international events such as the Atlantic Dialogues conference. As a scientist, she has more than 12 years of experience in conducting and planning multilateral projects. She has taught at the University of Queensland diverse courses in Molecular Biology and as a committee member at the life-sciences chapter of Women in Technology in Australia, has promoted, and organized events for reducing the gender gap in science.

Elena is currently a postgraduate student at the University of New South Wales Australia majoring in Public Policy and Governance. During her studies, she has been actively involved in multiple community projects such as Mosaic Mentoring Program – she was mentoring a group of 10 college students from refugees and asylum seeker backgrounds and The Welcome Dinner Project – in which she is currently involved in a Policy Advisor developing efficient policies and guidelines. She has more than three years of international work experience in the sphere of youth empowerment and community development. In collaboration with the local Russian government, she had successfully delivered some programs and projects for young people and children from various backgrounds and of different age.

Sandiso is a Management Consultant at Accenture Development Partnerships, a global practice within Accenture that employs an innovative business model to help make Accenture's business and technology consulting services accessible and sustainable to organizations serving the international development sector. Her focus is to support public and private sector organizations to overcome the challenges of Renewable Energy Access and Grow the Agriculture industry in Africa.

She is passionate about development and founded the Born to Succeed program that aims to curb the steep youth unemployment rate in South Africa through Career Development and Vocational Training. Before that, she the former Deputy Chairman of Advancement of Black Accountants South Africa Bursary Fund.

She was selected from a pool of 4000 applications from South Africa to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship 2016 in the U.S., and she recently represented South Africa at the World Bank Youth Summit 2016: Rethinking Education for the New Millennium, Washington DC by presenting her Youth Unemployment education mobile platform called ‘Khwela.’

Wafa Hammoudi is a political science graduate working on civic empowerment in her native Tunisia. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the American University of Cairo (AUC), where she specialized in international relations and minored in philosophy. Activist at heart, upon graduation, she dived into the civil society with the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LTDH), project coordination of the Advocacy and Legal Advice Center with I-Watch organization in the battle against corruption to youth empowerment and social entrepreneurship with the International Institute of Debate.

Being a diplomat's daughter, Wafa grew up in a multicultural environment and got the opportunity to live across the MENA region, which enabled her to develop an aptitude for intercultural dialogue and interchange. Wafa has just recently fulfilled a 6-year goal; initiating her own NGO to tackle national apathy through Bik Inti Civil Organization that will be working on civic empowerment and engagement in Tunisia. Wafa is planning on to pursue a postgraduate degree in Strategic Communications and Human Rights next. In between projects, Wafa aspires to learn more about visual storytelling to develop her advocacy work and hopefully, finish her first children book while still trying to master the art of making a descent cup of coffee

Ms Oleksandra ZAKHAROVA, Ukraine

Alexandra Zakharova born in Ukraine is development manager and co-founder of International NGO «Make it Real» based in Paris, artist and journalist who works in the photography, video, music and painting. She studied social sciences and art criticism. Her main research area is sustainable development in the field of education and culture.

A. Zakharova works all around the world (Africa, Indonesia, Europe and Japan) by using her knowledge of project management and sustainable development. Her main principal in work is “Ars longa, vita brevis” (Art is long life is short). She worked for "Amelie", ExpoGroup, UNIP – Nuclear Insurance Pool of Ukraine, essor uk, as advertising photographer (alexandresikov.com), in Music industry (Rock.ua, ZenHit, etc. + video productions)

Ms Esanju MASEKA, Zambia

Esanju Maseka is passionate about development-oriented activities and has served in various roles as a youth worker. From 2011 to 2016, she served as a board member and later as the Programme Manager for The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award-Zambia. A non-formal education programme focused on the development of young people through experiential learning activities such as Community Service, Skills Development, Physical Recreation and Adventurous Journeys.

Esanju also currently serves as a member of The International Award Africa Region’s Training Panel. In her role, she has trained over 60 volunteers in non-formal education. Additionally, Esanju was trained as a Human Rights Education Trainer through an initiative of the Commonwealth and has been trained as a Global Education Trainer through an initiative of the North South Centre for the Council of Europe. Her interest in education also saw her write an article answering the question, “How can an improvement in the quality of Education lead to job creation?” which was published in a World Bank Zambia compendium titled, ‘Think Jobs: The Youth Respond”. Esanju currently serves as the Projects and Events Coordinator for The Commonwealth Youth Human Rights and Democracy Network

Mr Segbene Francko Euloge AYOWA, Benin

Ayowa is a young person seeking to be better and is always in a perpetual quest for excellence and passionate about journalism. Not having the means to obtain his Baccalauréat to train in journalism, he did a master's degree in law and when the opportunity presented itself, he passed the entrance examination to the Center for Studies in Information Sciences and Technologies (CESTI.

Ayowa was first of the 2017 scholarship holders of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on more than 200 candidates. He is against social inequalities, against the way of education for children with disabilities, against the state policies for sustainable development in his country, so he hopes to be trained in Journalism Communication to be able to have the necessary tools to rally other young people to his cause.

Mr Tabot ARREY TAMBE, Cameroon

Arrey Tambe Tabot has seven years of experience in the non-profit sector. He holds a BSc in Physics (minor in Computer Science), MSc in Computer Science and is currently rounding off his PhD in Computer Science at the African University of Science and Technology as an African Development Bank scholar.

In 2012, he founded the EduTeens Science Development Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Nigeria whose work is focused on improving overall school quality through the implementation of technology-led initiatives. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Head of Department for Computer Science at the Nigerian Turkish Nile University where he was awarded a $15,500 grant (1 of 4 recipients in the whole of Africa that year) by Google for his work in promoting CS education in Secondary and High schools. He was also a member of the 4-man team that won first prize at the first African Grand Challenge in Arusha, Tanzania.

He was a former Google Student Ambassador, and now serves as an Ambassador for the Next Einstein Forum and an Ambassador for Global Education at A World at School. He was most recently selected as one of 23 young Global Social Change makers for the White House Emerging Global Leaders Initiative-Atlas Corps Fellowship where he is serving as a Senior Software Engineer at Affinis Labs, an award-winning Social Enterprise based in Virginia. He is also a graduate of the highly prestigious and competitive INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Program (ISEP) for Founders and CEOs and a frequent conference speaker.

Yan Mi is founder and CEO of the social enterprise Youth Lead. Youth Lead, designed to build-up a green talent pool that will drive and lead global sustainable development, is a platform in China aiming to promote understanding, leadership and entrepreneurship among young people in fields including environment, green growth, climate change and sustainability.

By far thousands of students from Harvard, Yale, MIT, Peking University and other universities all over the world have benefited from his training programs. He is currently working with high schools and universities in China to develop STEM courses on sustainable development education and designing a big data system to evaluate the outcomes of Education for Sustainable Development.

Yan Mi is a youth ambassador approved by Ministry of Environment Protection of China. He once worked respectively at Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), Trade and Investment Section of EU delegation to China, Europe-China Clean Energy Center in Beijing and Climate Action Network Europe in Brussels. Yan Mi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Material Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Angga D. Martha is a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy Candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, with the concentration on human security and international negotiation and conflict resolutions with research focus on Global Maritime Axis and its praxis with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). He is also the Global Focal Point for Oceans and SDG 14 at the UN Major Group of Children and Youth and the Youth Action Team of CIVICUS.

Previously Angga worked as the Youth Advocate at the United Nations Population Fund Indonesia and served as the Indonesian Youth Delegate to the 68^th and 69^th United Nations General Assembly. He advocates for the rights of young people and ensures the participation of adolescent and youth in the formulation of the new Sustainable Development Goals. He was also named one of the Young Leaders for Indonesia in 2011 by McKinsey and Company and the Ambassador’s Award of Excellence 2016 from the Indonesian Ambassador to the United States of America.

Mr Jerome COWANS, Jamaica

Jerome Cowans has risen from one of Jamaica's most under-developed communities to become one of the most recognized Youth Development Specialist in the Caribbean. At the age of 13 years, Jerome founded the LEAD Youth Group focused on using education and skills training to help young people escape poverty.

The group grew from strength to strength, using its models in several communities across the Jamaica. Some of the notable successes included securing sustainable employment opportunities for youth, over 50 tertiary scholarships and grants and national honours for role in youth development. In 2015, Jerome opened the first international branch in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

For his work, he has received both the Prime Minister and Governor General Awards in Jamaica. Internationally he has received awards from Canada, Sri Lanka, USA, the United Nations, the Commonwealth Office, and Colombia for youth leadership. He also copped the Nelson Mandela Award in South Africa.

In a speech to the young people of the Caribbean, President Barack Obama offered high praises for Jerome, the same year he was awarded by The Queen of England in Buckingham Palace. Jerome holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics and a Masters in Operations Management with distinction from the University of Birmingham, UK. His educational pursuits were funded by the Chevening Scholarships, which identifies future global leaders. Jerome lives by the quote – Be the change you want to see in the world.

Mr Stanislav KHANIN, Kazakhstan

PhD student at Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan.

Stanislav did his bachelor in computer science with a major in education and proceeded further to write master thesis on the relationship between ICT competency skills of secondary school students and their critical thinking skills. For now, Stanislav is working on his PhD thesis with the outcome product of the framework for educators to evaluate ICT learning programs on how well they can support the development of critical thinking skills.

Stanislav’s professional experience includes work at the Center for Innovations in Education at Higher School of Economics, Moscow. At the same time, he was a national coordinator of the project supporting development of critical and creative thinking skills at schools, launched by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris.

The area of his interests includes inclusive education, critical and creative thinking skills, ICT for education and critical theory based studies.

Mr Uchechukwu AJUONUMA, Nigeria

Uchechukwu Ajuonuma bagged B.Eng. in mechanical engineering at Imo State University, Owerri in 2012 with specialty in machine designing.

He has over 2 years of experience in program design and management for the not-for-profit and social enterprise sector; he is the Country Manager with Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF).

He began his career in mechanical design engineering at FlowMaster Ltd then at Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF). At both companies, he discovered the power of technology; as an inhibitor and a solution to many of the world’s problems. Then at YTF, Uche initiated 3D Africa – a community impact program that aims at teaching unemployed youth engineers to use 3D modelling software and hardware tools and at the same time providing them with entrepreneurial skills to competitively monetize their talent in the global marketplace.

Uchechukwu is passionate about education and entrepreneurship and how technology can be used as a bridge. He believes in the efficacy of girls and women education, hence he created room for girls in his 3D Africa under 3D Africa for Girls in 2015.

Mr Pamir EHSAS, Afghanistan

Pamir is an afghan refugee who was given a second chance in Norway. Since then he has devoted his time in ensuring that the children of Afghanistan are provided with the same educational opportunities as he did. In the lapse of 3 years, he has fought their case at United Nations, youth commentator at Aftenposten (biggest newspaper in Norway) and a range of other platforms. His greatest accomplishment has been founding Studentaksjonen - a NGO that has educated 1,200 Afghan youth through nationwide fundraisers.

He is a multi-award winning young philanthropist, amongst them a leadership prize by HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Even though he has been fortunate with a range of opportunities, his mission does not stop until every single Afghan child have the same rights to education as we do.

Mr Armin Elixeno GONZALEZ TORRES, Paraguay

Armin Elixeno González Torres did his primary studies at the Centro Cultural Gymmart, where he completed his basic school education. In 2011, he joined the Salesian Agricultural Institute "Carlos Pfannl" finishing his secondary studies in this institution and obtained the title of Agricultural Technician. He also did his language studies English in the Paraguayan cultural center of the Americas, thanks to his venture into the non-governmental foundation, Paraguay Katupyry Rekavo contest and participated in the 4th World Conference Women Deliver in Copenhagen, Denmark on environmental issues, global issues of sustainable growth and Sustainable development and women's rights.

He is currently in the third year of the Agricultural Engineering career at the National University of Caaguazú, faculty of production sciences.

Mr Nabede Assima NABEDE, Togo

NABEDE Nabèdè Assima is African of Togolese nationality. A great enthusiast of social science and a specialist in sustainable development, he is responsible for the ASEDI-Togo organization, which intervenes in the field of education and sustainable development.

He is also responsible for project coordination at the ILC: International Leadership Club, in charge of monitoring and evaluation.

He is also a consultant at the Youth Leadership Network YPL, Youth for Positive Life and Junior Consultant in Leadership and Sustainable development at the NGO APEL-Afrique: Action for Free Education in Africa.

Having done specializations in sustainable development and leadership, he is strongly committed to development, with the ambition of building a more sociable world on a livable planet.

Claire Christie, Canada

Claire is from Oakville Ontario but has been living in Halifax for the past four years while completing a double major in Environmental Science and Sustainability with a minor in Biology. While Dalhousie is her home school, in the fall of 2015 she completed a program at UBC while living on the island of Haida Gwaii. This program provided her with many eye-opening and awe-inspiring opportunities and adventures.

For the past four years, Phynuch has dedicated his life in leadership qualification development and empowering young people of his age to do more and dream more. His burning passion and solid commitment in youth capacity building and education has never failed to push him harder in this field as he believes it is the sustainable solution and the only seed for future growth.