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Ameenah Sawwan
- Location:
- Germany, Syria
- Languages:
- Arabic, English, German
- Issues:
- Education, Hunger/Food insecurity, Mass Incarceration & Criminal Justice Reform, Refugee Crisis and Immigration, Technology & Data, Women and Girls, Gender violence , Human Rights
- Expertise:
- Educational materials, Impact Strategist/Advisor, Campaign Implementation, Designing impact guides, Mentorship, Training
- Cultural/racial identity:
- I find cultural racial identifies mostly problematic, therefore I don't have an answer for now.
- Self identification:
- Female
Bio
I am a Syrian campaigner, strategic advisor, consultant and trainer based in Berlin, working across human rights, advocacy, communications, research and media, with a focus on the SWANA region and its diasporas. For more than a decade, I have worked alongside survivors and families, women led groups, human rights defenders, journalists, artists, filmmakers and civil society organisations on issues including justice and accountability, enforced disappearance, gender based violence and civic space. My work has included shaping campaigns and advocacy strategies, developing narratives and communications, and training and mentoring activists and organisations to strengthen work they are leading in their own communities.
As a Syrian, much of this work is rooted in political realities and communities I am part of myself. That has shaped how I approach stories of violence, displacement and resistance. People must be able to lead the telling of their own experiences and shape the advocacy, campaigns and impact work that grows around them.
In impact work, I bring strong contextual and political knowledge, sensitivity to how narratives are framed across different communities, identities and audiences, and experience building advocacy around complex issues. I am interested in approaches that strengthen people’s agency rather than speak over them, and that connect films to the communities, movements, institutions and conversations around them in ways that are thoughtful, grounded and strategically helpful.
