RecrearMagnify is starting this Sunday! We are super excited to bring together a group of extraordinary practitioners from all over the world. For two weeks we will be answering together the question:
“How do I recognise and facilitate the personal transformation necessary for me to belong to an organisation or system that feels alive and healthy?”
Meet this year’s team. They are researchers, creatives, youth workers and everything in between – we were captivated by their questions, their spirit and their life path.
Abeer believes in the value of finding a new purpose with every new experience life throws her way. Adding value to others is what gives her fulfillment and joy. One of her strengths is working with others. Abeer has a bachelor degree in Human Resource Management from King Saud University, a well-known university in Saudi Arabia. When she was still a student, Abeer was a very active in many clubs and activities. She also has earned a Training certification from Technical and Vocational Training Corporation in Riyadh. Abeer has a background in conducting workshops on personality types in the workplace. She is currently working as the communication & strategic partnership officer at Tasamy, a non-profit organization that focuses on finding sustainable and innovative business solutions to societal problems by enabling social entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia.
Anna works for Peacemakers. Peacemakers is a charity situated within the UK Midlands that delivers peace education via practical workshops and experiences that develop social and emotional learning and further understanding of how to resolve conflict creatively. Peacemakers educates for peace, not about peace in that we promote the foundational skills needed for peace such as communication, inclusion, dialogue and conflict transformation. Anna is the Restorative Coordinator for Peacemakers and provides both strategic and on-the-ground support, challenge and training to schools.
Carolina is a Colombian anthropologist living in Cusco, Peru. Currently, she supports a social organization that works with indigenous people and farmers in agro-biodiversity conservation of the Andean region. For four years she has been working on food issues with farmers, which has led her to get to know the world, her country and herself much better. Last year she completed her Master’s in Participation, Power and Social Change at the Institute of Development Studies. This led her to become interested in alternative pedagogies, artistic and creative methodologies, cultures of peace and political participation. She is constantly in a process of re-discovering herself, the people around her, and different cultures. She loves dogs, ice cream and feels at peace when she is walking in the city or in the countryside.
Caroline works with teenage girls (and other humans in her free time) to grow community, knowledge of self and conflict, and to help create interactions of authenticity and kindness. She lives in Ohio, where she is investigating questions about social justice, friendship, self-compassion, creativity, and the living environment. Some experiments have included knocking on doors and facilitating conversations about racism, building an intentional housing community, acting in community theater, volunteering with a free school, and seeking out challenging and supportive experiences with Nonviolent Communication, Gestalt groups, and Re-evaluation Counseling. She believes in the power of art and theater to conjure hope, insight, and radical change, and is eager to grow and discover with the rest of the Magnify cohort
Multidisciplinary artist, Cui JinZhe utilizes drawing, drawing-based installation and action-based public engagement to explore phenomenology, daily rituals and everyday experiences. This exploration serves as a catalyst for observation and reflection, which Cui cites as the core of her life practice. Cui JinZhe was born and raised in Dalian China and has lived and worked in Canada since 2008. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Jinzhe is also a lover of cooking, chaos singer and dancer. She believes that each individual is capable to live one’s life as freedom and peace.
Ibukun is a researcher with a background in clinical medicine and community health. She’s an Erasmus Mundus Fellow finalising her PhD in trans-disciplinary global health, with a focus on how mobile technologies (mHealth) can improve the quality of maternal health service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa.
Jennifer is a multi-lingual professional with over ten years of experience managing complex multi-stakeholder international projects. A project manager, facilitator, coach and writer, Jennifer prefers to see her job as creating a space in which multiple voices and perspectives can flourish. She opens lines of communication, builds supportive structures and holds space for partners to co-create a vision and work together toward a new reality. She is particularly drawn to youth entrepreneurship education as a space that breeds possibility, hope and collective action toward an emerging future.
A Canadian-British hybrid, Jess Marlow is an interdisciplinary artist and youth worker who has transplanted herself numerous times, moving between the west coast of Canada and the UK. She is still searching for home, and much of her work and personal questing has to do with finding a place of rootedness from which to grow. She acts as the Training and Creative lead for The Kite Trust, a charity based in Cambridge, UK, which supports LGBTQ+ youth. She is particularly interested in the role that the arts can play in building community, family, and a sense of home, especially for those who have lost it along the way. Superpowers include being able to come up with a seemingly endless list of drama games at the drop of a hat, and really weird first-date questions.
Laura is a seeker, activist, artist, birth worker and sister to all women. A few of the many areas of endless fascination for her include the quest for identity/belonging (cultural or personal), negotiating equality, spiritual awakenings, the magic of nature and Argentine tango. Professionally, she is trained in the field of international development with a focus on humanitarian emergencies and gender. Personally, she is continuously immersed in volunteer projects to build, support and inspire community and connection in every sphere of life. Through her practice of yoga and meditation over the last 14 years, respecting silence and space are key parts of her every day. She is periodically known to disappear for long periods into the woods and monasteries– and some say her superpower is her ability to happily live without technology and sometimes even sleep.
Over the past 15 years, Michelle has worked with youth and families in the community of Point Saint-Charles. In this time, she has co-founded various projects that nurture youth-leadership and political engagement, while working towards social and economic justice. This small working class community, nestled in the heart of Montreal, is both her home and where she spends her time scheming with friends, family and neighbours – imagining and working towards post-capitalist futures.
Tony Harris holds an MA in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. He currently works for a tech startup with a strong social impact focus. Tony’s professional passions include social entrepreneurship, organizational development, facilitation, and process & program design. In years past, he has worked as a facilitator and coordinator for several domestic & international education programs. His research expertise spans across the topics of gender & peace building, queer theory, public health, human rights, community development, and identity-based conflict. Tony also holds a BA in Peace Studies from Goucher College. His superpowers would have to include humor, empathy, & writing his own sense of a healthy masculinity as he makes his way in the world.
Fia loves to reflect, explore and learn with others. She believes there is something unique in each one of us and she loves to connect with people on a deeper level. She is passionate about participatory processes and research, organizational learning, social accountability and youth work.
Her background is in international development and in conveying the meaningful participation of young people in development and political processes. At the moment she is working as an independent trainer and researcher focusing on Action Research methodologies and topics such as power, empowerment and social change.
Fia loves to bring creative techniques such as theatre, storytelling and movement into her work. She is also a dancer and has a deep fascination and endless energy when it comes to literally any style of dance. At the moment she is exploring contact dance and loving it!
Kirsten is a nomadic soul who enjoys culturally enriching experiences and out-of-the-box living. She currently enjoys the new challenge of stability and deep dedication to her new home in Medellin, Colombia.
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 communities as well as civil society organizations. Her research interests have taken her from exploring Afro-Ecuadorian youth participation in Esmeraldas, socio-economic inclusion of young people in Bolivia and tendencies of evaluation among youth INGOs in London.
Gioel is the director of research at Recrear. She is also a PhD candidate at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. Through a case study of Colombian youth organizations, Gioel’s PhD project explores how different funding models affect organizational culture as well as the quality of social organizations’ internal and external relationships.
Already bored with the big buzz words? Don’t worry, Gioel is much more than that. A rebel from a young age, she got on a boat and crossed the seven seas with a bunch of very diverse people from all over, an experience that kick-started her intimate relationship with basically any (human) being and the world of interculturality.
If you say “kisses and hugs”, she says: “I just can’t get enough” and hugs you until you are full of love. As a good Italian, Gioel loves making awesome pasta dishes. She enjoys playing around, having deep conversations, meditating herself out of the world and in again, and organizing painting nights…
Gaby is an exuberant Venezuelan who first joined Recrear through the Magnify 2016 edition in Medellin, Colombia.
She brings her lively energy and deep listening mind to our team. Not to mention she’s a phenomenal life coach whose constantly questioning how the experiential can be a window into our self-exploration, as well as that of organizations. For this reason, she launched CreaPsique a Venezuela-based group of consultants on experimenting with psychology, coaching, psychodrama and experiential learning.
Khuyen is currently acting his new roles as a guide, life coach, facilitator and writer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. He loves people enough to coax himself to outgrow his introverted nerdy geeky self. Kinda like the Hulk, except for the size and green. Khuyen is (still) a bachelor from Tufts University, USA in Computer Science and Philosophy. He has been serving on the board of South East Asia Service Leadership Network (SEALNet), a nonprofit with a mission to cultivate young service leaders in SEA region. SEALNet broke open his heart and made it more whole, so talk with him about it.
For the last quarter of century, he has left hopefully memorable footprints in Hanoi, Singapore, Boston and the web (try searching). He likes to be put in boxes and make new boxes for others. A trickster by gene, Khuyen loves surprises and marvels in serendipity.
