Jimmie Briggs

Over the past two decades, Jimmie Briggs has earned a reputation as a respected human rights advocate in the field of journalism. He is a passionate human rights advocate, lecturer and educator. Through extensive travels to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the St. Louis, Missouri-native and graduate of Morehouse College has produced seminal reporting on the lives of war-affected youth and children soldiers, as well as survivors of sexual violence. A National Magazine Award finalist and recipient of honors from the Open Society Institute, National Association of Black Journalists and the Carter Center for Mental Health Journalism, his book on child soldiers and war-affected children Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go To War won him accolades in 2005, and took readers into the personal journeys of war-affected youth. Further, Briggs has served as an adjunct professor of investigative journalism at the New School for Social Research, and was a George A. Miller Visiting Professor in the Department of African and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois: Champaign-Urbana. A regular contributor to the daily news website, Loop 21.com, his upcoming book Blood Work, is a personal memoir of transformation and re-defined manhood. For his work with Man Up Campaign and the issue of violence against women, Briggs was selected as the winner of the 2010 GQ Magazine “Better Men Better World” Search, as well as one of Women’s eNews’ 21 Leaders for the 21st Century in 2011.

Zahra Liberté Aldünia

Zahra Liberté Aldünia is the founder and CEO of the innovative new non-profit organization “Paradigm Shifters Community Engagement Organization” (PS-CEO). PS-CEO works on encouraging members of society to become agents of global change by raising awareness and creating opportunities for engagement through mainstream pop culture outlets. The focus is to encourage individuals to find issues around the world that they are passionate about and then to actively take part in the solutions through everyday actions.

Never Again International – Canada and all of the issues that it addresses from genocide prevention to the elimination of child soldiers as weapons of war have always been topics that Zahra has been passionate about. She believes that Never Again International – Canada plays a critically important role in the education and empowerment of children and youth in the most vulnerable of situations, as well as in developed parts of the world because it also creates opportunities for partnership across the globe. A more united world is a more powerful world.

Zahra has dedicated over a decades worth of work to doing everything possible to create social justice in an unjust world. A recipient of the 2011 Youth Social Entrepreneurship Award (from the Corporate & Community Social Responsibility Conference,) she has founded, participated, and volunteered for tens of organizations in her lifetime, and helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars through innovative, & sustainable means of fundraising. Her work and experiences have allowed her the opportunities to meet with such people as Richard Branson, W. Brett Wilson, Queen Rania of Jordan, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Economist Jeffrey Sachs, Ben Affleck and many more affluent change-makers, whom have allowed her the consciousness to realize that concrete actions lead to concrete results, when the right connectors are in place.

Michael Mayen

 

Michael Mayen is a South Sudanese lost boy who migrated to Canada in 1998 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies from The University of Winnipeg. He was also one of the founders of the Lost Boys & Girls of Sudan.

In 2004, he founded and served as president of the African Students’ Association of The University of Winnipeg, and served as a Global Action Coordinator for the Menno Simons College.

Michael is the founder and executive director of the Language Centre for Newcomers serving young people and adults in Brooks, Alberta. The Centre provides training and education by teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) skills to immigrants, newcomers and refugees communities. Michael believes in the importance of immigrants educating fellow immigrants and assists refugees and war-affected individuals to develop the skills, information and support they need for entry and continued success in the Canadian labor market.

In 2008, he established the African Canadian English Language Training Centre in Brooks to assist newcomers to gain sufficient language skills so that they can function in Canadian society.

He is experienced in educating both newcomers and offers community-based programming by hosting workshops on Family violence prevention, war-affected children and gang related issues as well as instructing newcomers on Canadian citizenship preparation. Michael is both an instructor of ESL and acts as a settlement and employment counselor for war-affected youth.

He has first-hand experience serving as a national observer during the first democratic elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Michael works tirelessly to support refugees and war-affected children throughout Canada.

Benon Kalisa

Benon Kalisa is the youth coordinator of Never Again International – Canada in Rwanda. Benon has worked with Nuru Energy in Rwanda for the past two years. He has experience in conflict resolution, transformation and reconciliation, having previously worked for a peacebuilding NGO in Rwanda that focused on training youth to create their own income generating projects. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management (BBM)/Finance Option from the Kigali Institute of Management (KIM).

Giramata Radegonde

Giramata Radegonde is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. When the genocide took place, Giramata was in high school in the Western province of Rwanda, in Cyangugu. She was able to survive and now she is studying Political Science at Wayne State University in Michigan.

Berthe Kayitesi 

Berthe Kayitesi is an honoured former Advisory member of Never Again International – Canada. Berthe was a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where, at the age of 16, she lost both her parents. After fleeing to Congo, she graduated in psychopedagogy in Kigali, and later immigrated to Canada. She served as ambassador for “Friends of Tubeho”, an organization that provides access to education for more than 300 orphans of the 1994 genocide.  Berthe passed away suddenly due to a brain hemorrhage but she will be forever remembered by the Never Again International – Canada community.   Listen to an interview with Berthe that was recorded in May 2014.

In 2009, Berthe wrote the book Demain de ma vie: Enfants chefs de famille dans le Rwanda d’après, recounting her memories of that terrible period. “My entire world crumbled in front of my eyes,” she said while speaking at the UN in 2009. “Genocide is the result of a very long process of dehumanization. The genocide was the final result of discrimination.”

Berthe received her PhD at the University of Ottawa. Her formative research was on the resilience of the survivors of the genocide committed against the Tutsis of Rwanda, and on the experience of outsiders who are working on the 1994 genocide, racism, anti-Semitism and genocide denial.

Joseph Quesnel

Joseph Quesnel is a policy analyst and researcher who writes mainly about Aboriginal and property rights issues. He is lead researcher on the Aboriginal Governance Index, an annual measurement of opinions of Canadian First Nations on quality of governance and services and human rights. He graduated from McGill University with an honours bachelor of arts degree in political science and history. Joseph is currently completing a master of journalism degree at Carleton University. In 2007, Joseph travelled to Rwanda to complete a human rights internship. While in Rwanda, he worked hand in hand with Rwandan youth to develop a national youth newspaper with a focus on peacebuilding and human rights. Since that time, Joseph has provided communications advice to Never Again International – Canada.

Ornella Umubyeyi

Ornella Umubyeyi is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. She is the CEO and founder of Soul Survivors International (S.S.I), a Christian non-profit organization committed to help, support and work with vulnerable children and teens who struggles with poverty, injustice and HIV/AIDS in Burundi. Ornella is an accomplished human rights activist, a youth pastor at Zion Temple Celebration Center in Illinois and is a photographer, songwriter, poet, author and leadership mentor.