City of Sanctuary Ambassadors have diverse backgrounds and a variety of skills and interests. Many are graduates of our Sanctuary in Politics course and are passionate campaigners, advocates and future leaders.
If you are you interested in becoming a Sanctuary Ambassador, or have a press enquiry, please contact [email protected].
Alice
Alice is a councillor for Reading City Council. She holds a PhD in Identity and Transnational activities for young immigants and has volunteered at Reading Refugee Support Group for fifteen years.
She is passionate about making education accessible to people seeking sanctuary and she helps with our Universities of Sanctuaries programme.
Samsoudini (Shams)
Shams lives in Darlington and is completing an International Relations Masters. He’s the Co-Chair of Tees Valley of Sanctuary, a member of Doctors of The World Advisory group, a volunteer for the British Red Cross and a member of the UK Voices Networks group.
He is passionate about community, human rights, and making politics more compassionate.
Gaida
In Sudan, Gaida embarked on two university degrees and started a career on the national television. War put an end to all her dreams.
She has now gone back to university and is a passionate refugee rights activist. She is actively involved in our Schools of Sanctuary programme and has spoken at various schools to raise awareness about the refugee experience.
Hamada
Hamada experienced destitution and homelessness when he first arrived to the UK. Support from churches and charities gave him hope and changed his life.
He studied at university and now has completed a culinary qualification. He’s also an accomplished illustrator.
Niloha
Niloha was forced to leave her home in Venezuela, her life as a doctor and everything that was familiar. After experiencing the hostile environment of the UK asylum system, she is now a passionate refugee rights and equal access to healthcare campaigner.
Kushinga
Kushinga is from Zimbabwe and has lived in the UK for 23 years. She lives in Reading and works for Refugee Support Group and Sing for Freedom Choir. She’s passionate about advocating for the rights of refugees, human rights and social justice issues affecting marginalised communities.
Esther
After being forced to flee Syria, she and her family made Yorkshire their home. She’s now studying fashion design in London and uses her spare time raise awareness about refugees.
Mamoud
Mamoud is a social and political activist from Sierra Leone. He has been instrumental in the #LiftTheBan campaign, calling for those in the asylum system to have the right to work.
Ernest
Ernest is human rights writer and consultant from Kyrgyzstan, he has lived in the UK since 2014. He contributes to international organisations and think tanks in studies of human rights issues in post-Soviet countries. He is particularly interested in access to education for refugees.
Remzije
Remy started her journey as a refugee from Kosova in the early 90s. She is a pharmaceutical chemist, a human rights activist, the founder of non-profit Kosovar Albanian Youth Against Violence in London and a passionate community leader with more than twenty years public organisational experience.
Malka
Malka is an Iraqi poet and a Human Rights defender.
She is the former Director of the Women’s Centre for Culture and art in Iraq, she also used work as a professor at Kufa University, where she taught literary criticism.
Her first book of poetry, Birds Without Sky, was published in 2018. It won the Leicester Book Prize.
Abbas
Abbas is based in Wales. He came to the UK from Jordan in search of sanctuary so he could live in a democracy and freely express his views. He is a member, ambassador and volunteer with several organisation supporting asylum seekers and refugees.