Christina Bwana

Chief Operating Officer, Ubongo

Christina Bwana is the Chief Operations Officer and General Manager at Ubongo. Having grown up different countries, Christina considers herself a citizen of the world, has a passion for humanity and development and a special place in her heart for kids, having worked on campaigns on social issues ranging from anti-bullying and child trafficking to anti-poaching. She holds a dual BA in Psychology and Criminology, a Masters of Arts in Visualizations and a Masters in Educational Sciences.

https://www.ubongo.org/

Marcos Agustin Roca

Professor in Educational Sciences, Fe y Alegria

Marcos is an Argentinian educator with a very diverse experience that covers both primary and secondary levels, public and private spheres, non-formal and formal education. His work linked to different NGOs that work in coordination with the State, has allowed him to acquire a macro view of education, engaging in educational policies. He has also trained teachers, principals, inspectors in various educational topics. However, his vocation is mainly based in schools where he plays various roles, such as primary teacher, coach and coordinator of secondary service-learning activities.

In 2017, at the age of 28, he was summoned to serve as principal of a youth and adult baccalaureate, a role that he continues to this day. His students are mainly young people between 16 and 35 years old from the Buenos Aires, Argentina, suburbs, addiction recovery homes or shelters for people without a home. All these students have deserted from the formal educational system at least once. However, they continue looking for an education and finding in the “Taller Escuela María Asunción Guglielmi – Fe y Alegría”, the school that Marcos directs, a new opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

Doreen Bateyunga

Pre Production Coordinator, Ubongo Learning

Doreen Bateyunga is currently working at Ubongo Learning, a social enterprise that aims at delivering effective and localized learning content to African families at low cost & massive scale through edutainment. As the Pre-production Coordinator, she leads her team in creating entertaining and educational content for young children, Ubongo Kids and Akili & Me. Doreen holds a B.A in International Relations from the University of San Diego and a M.A from University College London (UCL) in Transnational Studies. She credits her uncommon experience in education for her mission of wanting to afford the same quality of learning to as many children as possible in Africa. Her past work has included fighting for girls’ right to education in Tanzania and bridging the digital gender gap through sparking and sustaining an interest in STEM in young girls.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/doreen-bateyunga-53a6b9142/

Pukhraj Ranjan

Former Head of Community & Impact, HundrED

Pukhraj Ranjan is an Indian education & social impact advocate based out of Helsinki, Finland. She is the former Head of Community & Impact, HundrED, a not-for-profit working to seek and share inspiring innovations in global education. She has also been recognized as an Emerging Leader by the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) by Qatar Foundation. With 10 years of experience in the education and development sector, Pukhraj has gained experience in the education space through the roles of youth volunteer, teacher, teacher trainer, facilitator, curriculum specialist, community builder, program manager and more. She has pursued her Bachelors in Business Administration from Symbiosis University (India) and Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland).

https://hundred.org/en

Vanessa Nakate

Young Leader for the SDGs, Climate Change Activist

Vanessa Nakate is a climate activist from Uganda. She was the First Fridays For Future climate activist in Uganda and founder of the Rise up Climate Movement, which aims to amplify the voices of activists from Africa. Her work includes raising awareness to the danger of climate change, the causes and the impacts. She spearheaded the campaign to save Congo’s rainforest, which is facing massive deforestation. This campaign later spread to other countries from Africa to Europe. She is working on a project that involves installation of solar and institutional stoves in schools.

She holds a degree in Business Administration in Marketing from Makerere University Business School. Vanessa was one of the young climate activists who were chosen to speak at the COP25 gathering in Spain, and she was one of 20 climate activists who penned a letter addressed a letter to the participants of the World Economic Forum in Davos, calling on them to stop subsidizing fossil fuels.

https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/vanessa-nakate/

Thana El-Sallabi

Innovation for Quality and Access Associate, WISE

Thana is the associate in the innovation for quality and access track at WISE and manages the WISE Awards program. After leaving the world of academic research and working in the higher education space, Thana joined WISE to work on bringing recognition and support to organizations that innovatively work to increase inclusion and access to education around the world.

www.wise-qatar.org