Our community

The people who move us

Recrear’s ecosystem is composed of all the people that make up our community. Our strategic decisions are taken in collaboration with our board and core team. We invite advisers, programme participants, and collaborators to take part in our strategic decision making whenever our decisions would affect them directly, or when further skills/knowledge are needed.

Our Governance principles

We cultivate a regenerative culture within the organization. We care, value and listen to each other. We recognize each other’s contributions and emotions.

We cultivate a learning culture. We allow time for providing feedback, digesting our organizational learning, speaking our thoughts and transforming tensions.

We are transparent in how and what decisions are taken. There is clarity about who can make what kind of decisions based on the level of involvement and skills; and what kind of responsibilities are linked to it. 

Decisions should be made by those affected by them, those implementing them, and those with the required skills/knowledge

The decision-making model shall maximize the agency of Recrear’s members.  This includes time for input, ability to take decisions within one’s role, possibility to take risks/learn from them, and the possibility to change the level of involvement.

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Our core team

Directors

Gioel Gioachino

Director of Research

Gioel is the Director of Research at Recrear and has over 10 years of experience in designing and implementing action research projects all over the world. She holds a MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from Sussex University’s Institute for Development Studies (IDS). There, through a case study of Colombian youth organizations, she has studied how different funding models affect organizational culture as well as the quality of social organizations’ internal and external relationships. Moved by the experience of co-founding and growing Recrear, she has become committed to accompanying organizations to transform their culture and reflect on their path. Gioel is a passionate blogger, writer and storyteller. She is an experienced facilitator and loves mixing and experimenting with a range of creative techniques.
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Fiammetta Wegner

Director of Strategy and Learning

Fia loves to design and facilitate creative and participatory processes and hold spaces to reflect, explore and connect with others on a deeper level. She has been working in the international development sector at the intersection of research and programme work for over ten years with Restless Development, IDS, Intrac, Womankind Worldwide, Eris and the Chorotega indigenous rights group, specialising in participatory processes, youth leadership and organisational learning. Her background is in conveying the meaningful participation of young people in development and political processes. She’s passionate about supporting youth and feminist movements with their internal organising, partnerships and ambitions. Fia brings creative techniques such as storytelling, movement and theatre into her facilitation practice. She is a contemporary dancer and has a deep fascination and endless energy when it comes to any style of dance. Her dream is to bring her dance and artistic practice even more into her work as a researcher and facilitator to impulse social change through artistic co-creations.
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Quime Williams

Director of Community Engagement

Quime is a nomadic soul who enjoys culturally enriching experiences and out-of-the-box living. Quime grew up traipsing around the world with her mixed up Canadian/Peruvian roots. Today she is happy to call Colombia home. As Recrear’s Director of Community Engagement, she has loved discovering how Recrear’s style of participatory action research can open up spaces for reflection for activists, collectives, international organizations and funders all over the world. Her research around civil society building has also led to the design of Recrear’s accompaniment work with organizations. This has included leading Oxfam through youth strategy development via training and guiding country teams and carrying out a year-long participatory strategic review of FRIDA Young Feminist Fund’s grant-making model and supporting organizations like VSO international to successfully launch pilot PAR initiatives across their international networks. Quime’s happy place is designing thoughtful, creative, and grounded participatory processes.
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Core Team Members

Liv Kaya Aabye

Communicator and creative mind

Maria Gabriela Biscardi

Coach and psychologist

Carla Bajonero

Facilitator

César Duarte

UX/UI designer

Visioning team

This is the team that re-visioned Recrear!
You can read more about our re-visioning process here:

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Laura Tashjian

Is a seeker, activist, artist, birth worker and sister to all women.

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Emilia Gonzalez

Is a young researcher exploring wellbeing through movement, creativity, nature, fermentation and community-building. She is based in Montreal.

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Carolina Neu

Is a Colombian anthropologist living in London, UK.

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Jennifer Catalano

Facilitates collaborative processes for social change. She dreams, plays, co-creates and reflects with fellow humans around the world.

Khuyen

Khuyen is a coach, writer and organizational consultant based in Vietnam.

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María José “Mache” Treviño

Mache is a nature lover, an adventure seeker and deeply interested in disability issues, peace-building, experiential education and social change.

Board Members

These are our new Board Members!

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Hasan Abo-Shally

Hasan is an impact-driven multidisciplinary passionate about technology, design, media and social-innovation. He sold his first application while in high school, worked for several tech startups and founded two social initiatives (hasoub.org & ibtekar.org). Hasan’s work was featured on global forums such as TEDx, OneYoungWorld, Al-Jazeera, Stanford AMENDS and others. In 2017 he was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. Hasan holds a B.A. in interactive communications and a masters in business administration from the Technion. Today Hasan works as a product manager at Microsoft, leads multiple social initiatives, advises several startups and nonprofits and experiments with social impact effectiveness and efficiency.

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Emilia Gonzalez

Emilia Gonzales was born in Colombia and currently calls Montreal her home. She is passionate about connecting with young people, listening to their stories and co-creating projects that have the potential to transform our society as well as the individuals involved. Her work explores youth resilience and participation through a Children's Rights framework. She is currently completing a MSc in the Division of Social and Cultural Psychiatry at McGill University. She has collaborated in youth-focused and youth-led research and community work with universities, public service organizations, local and international NGOs, and international and interdisciplinary research-community partnerships. For over two years, Emilia has accompanied Recrear through several processes and projects, including conducting the organization's internal review.

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Christian Cito Cirhigiri

Founder of Peacemaker 360, a communication nonprofit dedicated to connecting young peacebuilders worldwide through storytelling, Christian Cito Cirhigiri is a Congolese peace journalist, activist and researcher with 10 years’ experience supporting youth participation in peacebuilding processes in eastern Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Colombia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Integrated Community Development from Daystar University in Kenya and a master’s degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in the US. Christian is passionate about peacebuilding communications and the role of social media fostering knowledge and experience sharing among peacebuilding professionals around the world.

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Maria Alejandra Escalante

Maria Alejandra Escalante is a queer feminist from Colombia currently working at FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund leading the advocacy work on climate and environmental justice. She has a masters in Rural Territorial Development, is a Human Ecologist by profession, and her research focuses on the intersection between ecologies, sovereignties of the body-territory and participatory funding models. She loves dancing salsa, especially in queer and liberating spaces.

Liam O’Doherty

As Director of Digital Youth Engagement Programmes with TakingITGlobal, Liam O’Doherty designs and implements initiatives to inspire, inform and involve young people in making a difference in their communities. With a background in sustainable development, communications and theatrical improvisation, he has extensive experience advancing youth rights, gender equality and climate change initiatives through a range of contexts, from grassroots mobilizations to international policy processes. In 2015 he was recognized as a 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leader by Corporate Knights and as a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Intercultural Fellow. He has led several international youth delegations to the United Nations conferences, from COP15 to COP21 and is currently advising the UNFPA on youth engagement strategies for the Post2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.

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