IREX Fellows
The Community Solutions Program is a professional leadership development program for the best and brightest community leaders worldwide.
Community Solutions Fellows complete a four-month fellowship with a U.S. nonprofit organization or local government agency. The Community Leadership Institute provides an integrated leadership curriculum and individualized coaching throughout the fellowship. Fellows return home to apply their new skills through a community action project.
The Community Solutions Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by IREX.
For more information, please refer to this link: https://www.irex.org/project/community-solutions
Lina Alexandra Guerrero Zarco
IREX Fellow
Biography
At the time of her fellowship, Lina Alexandra Guerrero Zarco was a capacity development adviser for Conectando Caminos por los Derechos–Pact Colombia where she worked to strengthen the capacities of more than 18 civil society organizations (CSOs) to promote social cohesion and prevent the violation of human rights. Lina has designed and led the implementation of a capacity-building strategy to strengthen the organizational, technical, and advocacy capacities CSOs working with migrant and refugee populations from Venezuela, with returnees, and with host communities. Her work has specifically focused on promoting a sustainable collaboration between civil society organizations and authorities to prevent, protect, and respond to human rights violations, such as gender-based violence and human trafficking. Lina also provided support for the creation and consolidation of four CSO networks to promote advocacy.
For over a year Lina was also an adviser to the Diocese of Tibu where she worked to support eight rural communities to strengthen advocacy and rural development strategies. Included with that were eight community initiatives to promote a culture of legality and prevent gender-based violence in postconflict scenarios. Lina also was a coordinator of Handicrafts and Community Tourism, Bogotá, where she supported the design of a sustainable tourism and fair trade strategy with indigenous and peasantommunities while also helping to market handicrafts from 12 indigenous communities and promoting fair trade.
Lina holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies on Development from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota.
Lujan Subhi
IREX Fellow
Biography
At the time of her fellowship, Lujan Subhi was Coordinator of the Family First program in Jerusalem for Paamonim. Her responsibilities included implementing Paamonim’s Poverty Awareness Paradigm and Family First program in six social service centers in East Jerusalem. Lujain also managed and promoted partnerships with the Jerusalem municipality and with other social services in the region. She planned and implemented professional training of all staff members and mediates between the needs of the field and the needs of district staff. Previously, as a Family Assistant with Paamonim Lujain provided services to Palestinian families living in poverty, including assistance with education, employment, and exercising of rights. She would accompany families in need to service sites, map community services provided to families in poverty, map the needs of families and the adjusted services to meet thos needs.
She also worked for two and a half years as a community developer and Project Organizer for the Biet-Safaf Women’s Society and was also a logistics operator for a travel agency in Jerusalem.
Lujain has an undergraduate degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies, with a minor in Arabic Language and Literaturerom The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a degree in Political Science with a focus on Peace and Development Studies from the University of Limerick in Ireland.
Niamat Ullah
IREX Fellow
Biography
Niamat Ullah was selected as a Fellow 2022 of the U.S. Department of State from the Community Solutions Program, IREX. He is placed as a Peace Fellow at the Better Evidence Project, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.
Niamat Ullah is an Advocate of the District and Sessions Court under Bangladesh Bar Council and professionally works as a Legal Officer (Legal Cell), Office of the Registrar at the Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). Prior to joining BUP, he worked as an Assistant Manager (Complaints management) at BRAC. He started his professional career with the PVE works at Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center as a Lead Instructor for a special project on ‘Promoting Equality in Madrasa Students’ supported by the US Embassy, Dhaka in 2018 & 2019. He is a graduate of the 17th batch of Building Bridges through Leadership Training.
Niamat is voluntarily working as a Lead, Curriculum, Training & Project Development at Surge Bangladesh, his core responsibilities are to develop training curriculum/modules, take sessions, and design & managing different projects connected to peacebuilding, peace advocacy, and peace education. In 2020, Niamat was awarded the ‘EMK Center Small Grant 2020 award for a PVE-related project. Besides Surge Bangladesh, in 2019 he along with 4 team members established ‘Peace Maker Studio’ with the support of UNDP’s small grant through the Digital Khichuri Challenge idea competition. Then he has been awarded one of the national winners from Accelerator Bangladesh 2.0, Youth Co-Lab 2019, and UNDP in collaboration with the Citi Foundation. He is involved with Peace Maker Studio as a Trainer.
He has completed his Master of Laws (LLM) from the Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) and he has completed a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Northern University Bangladesh. He is nine times a recipient of the NUB Meritorious Scholarship.
Ula Hindi
IREX Fellow
Biography
Ula ElHindi has been selected as a peace fellow 2022 of the U.S. Department of State from Community Solutions Program IREX.
She is working as a peace and conflict resolution fellow with the Better Evidence Project, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter project, School For Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, Washington DC, USA.
Ula has been selected, among 50 women from MENA region, by UNWomen regional office as a peace-builder woman 2021.
In March 2021, she launched and worked as the English project coordinator of MetooGaza for raising awareness on sexual harassment in the Palestinian context.
She is interested on engaging internally displaced women in decision making process.
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