Ali Mahgoub
Director
My name is Ali and I have over 25 years of experience in the third, non-profit sector. I am a human rights activist, I’m passionate about politics and inequalities, and I also speak more than five languages.
Khair Rudd
Youth support worker
My name is Khair and I am passionate about helping youth through various projects like the Youth Group and Homework Club. I champion Equality and Diversity amongst Youth and underrepresented communities especially promoting access to higher education for all. I also support all the ESOL classes at the center.
Sarah Gaber
Project Worker
Hello, I am Sarah from Germany. I moved to the UK for a Placement at Leeds Refugee Forum and stayed. My current position is running a phone line project for individuals that need help filling out forms, have questions about our services or just need information about signposting. To make these services accessible for everyone we have bilingual translators, who are happy to support individuals. Whilst being a project manager at the phone line project, I also study Social Work in Hamburg which is currently online due to Covid.
Raissa Mattana
Project Worker
My name is Raíssa, and I am originally from Brazil. I have experience working with victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, and now I am an employment advisor for Leeds Refugee Centre and the Latin American community in London through an organisation called IRMO. I am also doing a Master’s in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies. I am taking up an internship with the UN Office for Drugs and Crimes in Brazil, on a project to map the needs of persons victim of trafficking and exploitation.
Oman Balkin
Communications & Marketing Officer
My name is Oman and I am originally from the Philippines. I am a recent Masters graduate in Global Development and Gender from the University of Leeds and in charge of lots of things at LRF. I answer any questions about our projects, manage any referrals and register new students or service users. I also manage the website and all social media, and I run a women’s only wellbeing project that teaches women things like sewing, knitting, embroidery and beading. This builds on my previous experience at an Afghan women’s association, hosting legal workshops on human rights and developing marketing campaigns.
Trustees
Leeds Refugee Forum is entirely community led. Our Board of Trustees is made up of individuals elected by our members. Our trustees come from the refugee community in Leeds. Trustees meet every six to eight weeks to administer the running of the organisation and the One Community Centre.
Kathy Seamian
Chair of Trustees
Louise Waite
Secretary
Professor of Human Geography, School of Geography, University of Leeds. Background in research and collaboration with asylum seeking and refugee communities. Student Educator around themes of forced migration / human trafficking / modern slavery / labour exploitation and migrants rights.
Godefroid Rubomboza
Treasurer
Haleh Jahanshahlou
Trustee
I am from Iran and moved to the UK in 2018. Before coming to the UK, I was working as a civil engineer for 17 years and after moving to the UK I started working as a qualified secondary Mathematics teacher. I started as a volunteer in LRF in November 2018 and stayed with them till July 2019.After starting my job as a teacher I could not continue working as a volunteer but now I am a trustee with LRF.
Maxmed Hussein
Trustee
I represent the Leeds Swahili Cultural Community who support communities in accessing support and education.
Pria Bhabra
Trustee
Leeds Migration Programme Manager at Leeds City Council, Communities Migration Team which delivers a range of activities to address the following themes in partnership across the city:
- Support for new communities;
- Responding to national policy changes;
- Organisational improvement activity;
- Community engagement and capacity building;
- Embedding learning and sharing best practice.
Naima Mohamed
Trustee
My name is Naima,I have graduated from the University of Huddersfield and have a Masters in Strategic Human Resources Management. I worked with communities as well as the Somali community and also Leeds Refugee forum as a volunteer.At the moment I work for Samsung Technical team. My passion is to help, encourage and motivate women and youth.
Fahimeh Forouzandeh
Trustee
Taurai Cheteni
Trustee
Andrew Rathbone
Trustee
Mamadou Diop
Trustee
Volunteers
Volunteers are invaluable to LRF and help us to run our wide range of services – from running classes, to translation support, to administrative help.
We think everyone has something to contribute to our community and you can read here for more information about how to volunteer.