Yousef Al-Helou, panel member, Miral.
Yousef Al-Helou is a Palestinian freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Gaza-Palestine. His work has been featured in a variety of media outlets including BBC, GRN, CBC Radio Canada, TV New Zealand, UN Observer, Reuters Institute, Middle East Monitor, Press TV, Al-Etejah TV, Maan News Network, Electronic Intifada, Palestine Chronicle, PNN among many others. Yousef is a Reuters journalist fellow and a UN fellow as well and took part in many speaking tours in the UK/Ireland about his work experience, reporting in a war zone. Yousef covered the infighting between Fatah and Hamas as well as the two Israeli wars on Gaza in late 2008/early 2009 and late 2012, arrival of siege-breaking boats and many other major events since 2006. Yousef runs Gaza TV News page on Facebook that has more than 49,000 followers. Currently he is working on his research at Oxford University about the rise of citizen journalists in Gaza and their impact of public perception of Palestine in the West. Sir Iain Chalmers, panel member, Miral. Iain Chalmers practised as a clinician for seven years in the UK and the Gaza Strip, before becoming a full time health services researcher. Between 1978 and 1992 he was founding director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit. Between 1992 and 2002, he was founding director of the UK Cochrane Centre, which convened the meeting at which the Cochrane Collaboration was inaugurated. Since 2003, he has coordinated the James Lind Initiative to promote public and professional acknowledgement of the need to address uncertainties about the effects of treatments. He is coordinating editor of The James Lind Library and Testing Treatments Interactive. He was knighted in 2000 for services to health care. Jenny Stanton, panel member, Miral. Jenny is branch organiser of the Oxford branch of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). She became involved in campaigning for freedom and justice for Palestinians through joining the anti-war movement of 2002-3. Before that she worked as an academic in history of medicine, in Oxford and London. She is now an author of fiction – her novel The Blessing of Burntisland was published by Karnac in 2011. She has been to the West Bank four times, and is active in the Oxford Women in Black as well as PSC, the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association, and the Network of Oxford Women for Justice and Peace. Nikki Marriott, panel member, Miral. Nikki has been active in the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association (ORFA) since 2004, a charity which works to build links between Oxford and Ramallah (especially Al Amari refugee camp). ORFA organises and raises funds for speakers and groups from Palestine to visit Oxford and coordinates self-funded delegations from Oxford to visit Ramallah. Nikki works is a teacher at City of Oxford College. Dr. Richard Carver, panel member, Hunger. Richard has worked in human rights research and policy since the early 1980s, having been on the staff of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and ARTICLE 19. He has carried out consultancies for a variety of United Nations and non-governmental agencies. In the 1990s Richard taught at the Refugee Studies Centre in the University of Oxford and has been a guest lecturer at a number of universities, including Cambridge, Harvard, Nottingham, York, London, Pavia, and Lisbon. He has been an associate of the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) since September 2008. He is an adviser to the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Network and project associate of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Project at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. Richard is currently leading a three-year multi-country project to research the effectiveness of torture prevention measures. Séamas Heaney, panel member, Hunger. Séamas is Project Director with the Old Library Trust, Healthy Living Centre. His work includes socio-economic and peace building projects and programmes and promotion of community health in his home town of Derry a major theatre of conflict in Northern Ireland throughout ‘the Troubles’. Séamas has been involved in peace building work since the early 1990s and has experience and understanding of the nature of conflict and division within the social and political landscape of Ireland, North & South. He has experience in the development of community healing programmes addressing the legacy of the conflict focusing on individual and community trauma and the reintegration of those excluded as a result of the conflict; community relations work; community dialogue and truth recovery. Eamonn Baker, panel member, Hunger. Eamonn Baker was born 1951 and reared in the Creggan Estate (Derry) an area frequently referred to as a Nationalist/Republican ghetto of Northern Ireland. He is training co-ordinator with Towards Understanding and Healing in his native city; encouraging "deep listening" to the diverse stories arising from "the conflict" here in these islands. Sean McAllister, filmmaker, The Reluctant Revolutionary. From his early films to his more recent international successes, Sean McAllister’s films portray, with characteristic intimacy and frankness, people from different parts of the world who are struggling to survive but are survivors, caught up in political and personal conflict, trying to make sense of the world we live in. Sean's recent films include The Reluctant Revolutionary (2012, with the Irish Film Board ), Japan: A story of Love and Hate (2008, Co-production BBC Storyville, NHK, Ten Foot Films Ltd) and highly praised The Liberace of Baghdad (2004, Co-Produced with BBC Storyville, TV2 Denmark, Ten Foot Films Ltd) which received the Sundance Film Festival 2005 Special Jury Prize Winner amongst numerous other awards. Jon Bennett, panel member, The Reluctant Revolutionary. Jon has 35 years experience working in developing countries for the UN, NGOs and as a consultant for governments. In recent years he has worked in Yemen for the British government, UN and EU. Helen Lackner, panel member, The Reluctant Revolutionary. An Arabist and author, Helen has lived and worked in Yemen for more than 15 years and has recently been an advisor to the World Bank on rural development poverty alleviation projects and to UNICEF on aspects of the National Dialogue that will determine the future of the country. She is the editor of Why Yemen Matters, a society in Transition published in February 2014. Ben Yeger, workshop leader, Identity: What stories inform who we believe we are? Panel member, This is not a subject for comedy. Ben is is a highly experienced group facilitator. In how work he focuses on exploring how we can respond more creatively and expansively to situations of conflict. He is the UK representative for Combatants for Peace, and served in the Israeli Army in 1983-86. He is also a Creative Associate of UK based pioneering participatory arts organaisation Encounters. He gave a Ted Talk called Humanising the Enemy in which he tells his story of personal transformation from violence to non violence. Sameem Ali, speaker, Honour Me. Abandoned by her parents, Sameem Ali grew up in a children's home. When she was told that her family wanted her back, she couldn't wait. However she returned to a dirty house where she was subjected to endless chores. Her mother beat her, unhappiness drove her to self harm. So Sameem was excited when she visited Pakistan for the first time with her mother, only to discover she wasn't there for on a holiday. Aged just 13, Sameem was forced to marry a complete stranger. Two months later and pregnant, she returned home to Glasgow where she suffered further abuse from her family. After finding love, Sameem fled the violence and escaped to Manchester with her son. Believing she had put her horrific experiences behind her, she was unprepared for the consequences of violating her family's honour. Neishaa Gharat, panel member, Salma. After studying visual arts, Neishaa co-founded & pioneered the concept of design & communications studio in Mumbai in the mid nineties. She believes that as artists we are all responsible for making the world a better place and loves creating engaging mediums to propagate that message. She is voluntary director and campaigner of Project Crayons a charity that creates support structures that would help provide tools like education, shelter, food and hope for those children and youth of marginalised communities in India. One of the latest project was the Young Women's Welfare Centre that aims to provide shelter for girls aged 16 years and above and to give them an opportunity to pursue higher studies and seek employment. Jess Hurd, speaker, The Life and Work of a Photojournalist. Jess is a photojournalist and campaigning photographer, supplying images and photo-essays to international newspapers, magazines, trade union journals and NGOs through her library Report Digital since the 1990s. She has been a London based freelance since 2001 working with a broad range of campaigning organisations on social issues often inadequately covered by the mainstream press. In the international sphere, she has worked at the global political grassroots - the uprising in Egypt, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, the Zapatistas in Mexico and urban social movements in Brazil, India, China and Africa. Jess is a passionate advocate of press freedom which has come under increasing threat in the UK. She is one of the founders of I’m a Photographer Not a Terrorist, a campaign against police repression. She is a member of the National Union of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists. Jason N. Parkinson, speaker, The Life and Work of a Videojournalist. Jason is an independent freelance news cameraman specialising in international protest, political unrest and environmental issues, investigating the social and economic issues behind the stories. In the UK he extensively covered the English Defence League protests which led to exposing the fascist and Nazi elements inside the far right street army. His work has taken him throughout the UK and across Europe, into Russia, Mexico, America, Egypt, and Turkey and is a regular contributor to Associated Press, Guardian, Channel 4 and BBC. He was nominated twice for the Rory Peck News Award, for his coverage of the London Riots and the Egyptian Revolution. |