Sabine Larribeau is Director of AMERA International. She has worked with, and for, refugees for the past 15 years in Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa – specialising in protection, mental health, and coordinated legal and psychosocial case management. Sabine has a particular interest in the interchange between biopsychosocial factors and law, and has developed and implemented programming accordingly. She has worked as a consultant developing programming strategies that target the needs of refugees and migrants. Sabine formerly worked as a director in the executive leadership team at St Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS), a pioneering refugee-led organisation providing direct services and developing resources and capacities within community-based organisations. She has a long history with AMERA and its work, having been team leader of the unaccompanied children and youth team at AMERA Egypt a decade ago. Sabine brings to AMERA International a vision and energy for integrated and dynamic refugee legal aid, working for and with refugee communities.

Bernadette Iyodu is the Rights in Exile Programme Coordinator at AMERA, a well-respected and established ‘one-stop shop’ of resources for legal aid providers and refugees, globally. Bernadette has more than 15 years of legal experience including working with refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda and the UK. Most recently, she worked in the field of alternative dispute resolution at the Singapore Management University School of Law. Bernadette was also a senior legal officer at the Refugee Law Project, a part of the School of Law at Makerere University, Uganda. On a pro bono basis, she also assisted with asylum cases as an expert witness and as a consultant in Oxford with the Rights in Exile Programme, working closely with Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond. She has practised law in Uganda and is a member of the Uganda Bar, as well as a member of the Uganda and East Africa Law Societies. Bernadette also has Caseworker Accreditation with the UK Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University, and an LLM in human rights and democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Maher Adam is AMERA’s Administrator. Maher is based in Cairo, where he also works as a Programs Officer at St. Andrew’s Refugee Services. Maher has a solid understanding of organisational administrative procedures and policies; this insight and accompanying skills have helped him in his career. He makes the most of opportunities to educate and improve himself to contribute to his development and to the organisations he works for. Maher has an interest in developing and monitoring administrative procedures that support program development. He is driven by a passion to lead and support projects that aim to increase access to free-of-charge legal and psychosocial services for refugees all over the world.

Chuol Simon Yat is a Projects Consultant at AMERA International. Chuol has more that six years of legal, psychosocial and community outreach experience working with displaced populations. Chuol initially worked as a psychosocial caseworker, supporting people facing various psychosocial and mental health needs. Later, as a Senior Legal Officer and Legal Manager, Chuol trained refugee-led community based organisations (CBOs) in assisting refugees with UNHCR registration and refugee status determination processes. Chuol helped launch and manage a project to support 20 CBOs to expand their capacity through creating and strengthening legal services in CBOs. He supervised the work of community paralegals. Chuol managed the legal referral system between St. Andrew’s Refugee Services and CBOs in Egypt. Chuol holds a Bachelor of Laws from Cairo University, and an LLM from Ain Shams University.

Falastin Hasan provides HR support for AMERA International. She manages volunteer and internship applications, conducts onboarding, and follows up with  administrative needs and wellbeing support for volunteers. She previously worked in psychosocial support with refugees, and provided supervision and training for other psychosocial workers and volunteers. Falastin is multilingual, fluent in Arabic, English, and Somali. She is committed to supporting people from all around the world to access opportunities and work together to strengthen refugee rights.

Alice Johnson heads the Cairo Community Interpreter Project (CCIP) within the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at The American University in Cairo. Since joining CCIP in 2006, she has led refugee interpreter training and technical assistance projects to build rights-based language access with refugee aid organizations in over a dozen countries. Prior to CCIP, Alice worked in the Highlander Research and Education Center language justice program 2002-2004, and in various immigrant community leadership development organizations in the US South since 1993. Alice holds a postgraduate professional diploma in Arabic<>English simultaneous interpreting, a Master of Advanced Studies in Interpreter Training, and a PhD in Translation and Intercultural Studies, researching rights-based approaches in training refugee interpreters working in refugee aid operations in the Global South.

Griselda Denizi holds a European Law degree from the University of Warwick. She has worked in the Asset Management industry for the last 5+ years specialising in financial analysis, investing and risk management. Griselda has been involved in various forms of charity works since first becoming interested in the field during her school years and has continued ever since, throughout university and beyond. She has worked with charities in the UK, USA, Tanzania and India, predominantly focusing on refugee issues, education and youth empowerment.

Fiona Cameron has worked with refugees in the UK and Egypt for over fifteen years. She is currently running the Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team (ASIRT) in Birmingham, and also works as a research assistant at the University of Bedfordshire, where she is a visiting fellow.  Before returning to the UK in 2012, Fiona was the Executive Director at St Andrew’s Refugee Services in Cairo.  She is currently studying for a PhD at Napier University, Edinburgh – in Refugee-led service delivery.