Founded in 2015 as a grassroots organisation in Calais, the Hummingbird Project is now a Brighton-based Charity working locally with young refugees & campaigning nationally.

The Hummingbird Young Leaders are an award winning group for young people, working together for the rights and protection of refugees in around Brighton. The group has been running for around three years and meets weekly to develop skills and knowledge around public speaking, leadership, politics, human rights and advocacy. The Young Leaders have spoken at many prestigious events and in 2019, won a Parliamentary Award for their campaigning work. Naqeeb and Percy will be speaking to the JRAN Forum.

Naqeeb is 19 and a multi award winning graduate of the Hummingbird Young Leaders Program. He is now one of the program's most experienced campaigners. In addition to being a Young Leader, Naqeeb works tirelessly in his local community to support other young people and refugees. He is also a qualified table tennis coach and the founder of Worthing Ping!

Percy is 19 and has recently joined the Hummingbird Young Leaders, but has achieved a huge amount in a very short space of time. In the past six months Percy has spoken at events, made a video for a national campaign, interviewed with the Guardian and wrote and performed his own poetry to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

Working in the UK and across Europe through a combination of campaigning and legal casework, Safe Passage exists to help child refugees access safe, legal routes to sanctuary. Safe Passage Young Leaders was launched at the beginning of 2020 to provide a platform for young refugees to speak out about issues they care about and develop skills in campaigning and advocacy.

Nouran is 16 and joined the Safe Passage Young Leaders in March 2020. She is an active campaigner for refugees’ rights in her local community of Southend and works tirelessly to speak out and act on issues she cares about. From lobbying her local council to pledge places for unaccompanied child refugees, to sharing her story and passion for social justice in local and national newspapers alike, Nouran is an unstoppable force and an extremely committed member of Young Leaders.

Ali G is 19 and has recently joined the Safe Passage Young Leaders. He is dedicated to advocating for social change around the world. In the UK, he has campaigned for refugees’ rights to access services such as education, accommodation, and financial support. He also spent time in Greece, working with people in refugee camps there. In addition to his activism, he is a Youth Ambassador for the theatre company Compass Collective and is currently volunteering for 8 different charities!

Janice is World Jewish Relief’s UK Programme Director and runs the Specialist Training and Employment Programme (STEP), which supports resettled refugees in to employment.

STEP is run in partnership with Coventry City Council, Bristol City Council, Bradford Base, Refugee Council, BITC, TERN and SBC Theatre Company. Janice has over 20 years’ experience working for a range of charities and social businesses, developing and managing large scale projects. Janice was award and MBE for services to refugees in the June 2019 honours list.

Zeinab joined the Refugee Employment Network REN in 2020 as the Refugee Employment Network Coordinator.

She has extensive experience working with refugees and disadvantaged people inside the UK and internationally. She has a Linguistic and Media & Communications academic background. Zeinab is a refugee herself and she is passionate about employing the utmost of her overseas experience to help refugees have equal access to employment.

In Syria, Nour Jarrouj helped change the cycling landscape for women. Despite being socially unacceptable for women to ride, Nour was one of the first women to join the Yalla Lets's Bikeinitiative. In a year four women had turned into more than 1,200. Now living in the UK, Nour is helping refugee and asylum-seeking women to cycle as Pedal Power manager at The Bike Project.

Jem founded the Bike Project in March 2013. To date, the project has given away almost 6,500 bikes and now, in 2020, and now has bases across London and in Birmingham. We have won several awards including The European Union Social Innovation competition and The Best Charity at the National Lottery Awards. Jem personally won the Lloyds Banking Group Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015.

Jonathan Wittenberg was born in Glasgow to a German Jewish refugee family.

He was appointed Rabbi of the New North London Masorti Synagogue in 1987 and Senior Rabbi of the Assembly of Masorti Synagogues UK in 2008. He is a co-founder of Eco-Synagogue and deeply engaged in environmental issues. He is closely involved in supporting refugees.

Further interests include pastoral work, hospice care, and literature, especially poetry. He teaches and speaks widely, including on Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day. His publications include The Eternal Journey: Meditations on the Jewish Year (2001); The Silence of Dark Water: An Inner Journey (2008); Walking with the Light (2013); My Dear Ones: One family and The Final Solution (2016) and most recently Things my dog has taught me – about being a better human.

He is married to Nicola Solomon; they have three children and a dog. He loves plants, animals, people, and woodland and mountain walks.

David is the co-founder of One to One Children’s Fund and the Chair of its Board of Trustees. David co-founded the One to One Project to help disadvantaged families during the early 90’s, expanding to South Africa and Kosovo (with his wife, Jenny) which resulted in the formation of One to One Children’s Fund in 2001, with a mission to relieve the suffering of vulnerable children, wherever there are critical gaps in government or other support.

The early 2000’s saw David leading the development of HIV/AIDS treatment and support programmes in South Africa, trauma counselling programmes and day care centres in Kosovo and resilience building initiatives in the Middle East for Israeli and Palestinian children exposed to violence as well as for children in Kerala, India in the aftermath of the Tsunami

David is the co-founder and recently retired Chairman of Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa (PATA), a network organisation of more than 450 HIV clinics across Africa, sharing best practice and treating more than 250,000 children born with HIV.

In 2015 David and Jenny co-founded the Refugee Trauma initiative (RTI) together Zarlasht Halaimzai working with traumatised refugee families and young people on the islands and mainland of northern Greece. They are now focusing on crucial mental health gaps for young refugees in the UK in partnership with Barnet Refugee Service.