Hannah Williams: Interim Chief Executive

Hannah Williams joined The Separated Child Foundation in November 2020. She has a wealth of experience in the corporate and charity sectors with a background in marketing and business development. Hannah is deeply committed to volunteer work and has over 20 years’ experience supporting organisations such as Samaritans and Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SoBS).

Hannah can be contacted on 07376 721325 or at contact@separatedchild.org

Helen Tirebuck: Programme Manager

Helen Tirebuck joined us in June 2022 as Programme Manager. She is an experienced programme manager with a background dedicated to working on refugee crises. Prior to joining us, Helen spent five years in the Middle East. Helen’s charity experience spans two decades. Within that time she has worked in small charities such as Challenges Worldwide as well as world-renowned global organisations including Oxfam, Mercy Corps and CARE.

Benedetta Mocci: Project Co-ordinator

Benedetta Mocci joined The Separated Child Foundation in April 2024. She is a master’s student in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies at the LSE and has been involved in the charity sector for more than three years. She has great experience working with British and international youth, with a focus on refugees and women and girls. She has experience in programme coordination, research and consultancies.

Irene Carrara: Youth Worker (Bournemouth)

Irene Carrara has a wealth of experience working with children and young adults both in the UK and abroad. She has provided casework and education support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and has also worked as a volunteer coordinator in the refugee sector. Irene holds a Master’s in applied theatre and combines her passion for theatre-making with youth work, partnering with organisations to engage young people through creative activities.

Helen Moore: Youth Support Worker (Bournemouth)

Helen Moore joined The Separated Child Foundation in September 2022 as the youth support worker for Club Class in Bournemouth. Helen has many years’ experience working with children and young adults within the UK and internationally. Her experience includes providing advice to families and children and child support work in domestic abuse. Helen is passionate about volunteering for various charities as well as supporting her local community.  

Maddie Wakeling: Youth Worker (Croydon)

Maddie Wakeling joined The Separated Child Foundation in September 2023 as a youth worker for Club Class in Croydon. Maddie is also a  theatre maker and youth worker who has worked with many organisations using creative facilitation to engage with young people. She also works with the Kiln, Pan Arts and sits on the board of Sheba Arts CIC.  

Trustees

Fathiaa Abdalla (Chair: Board of Trustees) 

Fathiaa Abdalla comes with three decades of experience having held senior leadership positions in UNHCR, UNICEF, Save the Children, OXFAM and MSF, in HQ, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She served as Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to Kenya and to Afghanistan. Fathiaa worked extensively in the humanitarian field around the world, in conflict zones and with displaced population in many countries including, Iran, Yemen, Western Sahara, Switzerland, Iraq, Algeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, North Korea, UK, Sudan, Malawi, Philippines, and West Timor (Indonesia) among others.

Fathiaa holds an MSC from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London University, and postgraduate diplomas from Wageningen University Netherlands, Reading and Keele University, UK.

Through her work with the UN, Fathiaa contributed to advancing female leadership and continues to mentor the next generation of young leaders through telling her story.

Gloria Abramoff (Member: Influencing Committee)

Gloria Abramoff is the Managing Director of Tonic Productions, specialising in award winning editorial content for BBC networks, corporates and charities. As an Executive Consultant, she is also developing creative  primary school content linking the curriculum to careers. Previously at the BBC, she was the Creative Director of Children In Need and Project Director for multi media social engagement campaigns. A retired Trustee of both the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and The Radio Academy, she is an active advocate concentrating on story telling, working with several charities to help develop their work and impact.

Alemu Tebeje Ayele 

Alemu Tebeje Ayele is an Ethiopian exile journalist, teacher, poet, community activist and website campaigner based in London. He studied Ethiopian Languages and Literature, and Journalism at the universities of Addis Ababa and Wales respectively. He was also awarded a Diploma in Education and Training at the University of Westminster. His poems have been published in two anthologies ‘’Forever Spoken’’ and ‘’No Serenity Here’’, and other online and print literary magazines including Modern Poetry In Translation and The Missing Slate.

Professor Mike Donnelly PhD (Chair: Management Committee) 

Mike Donnelly is a semi-retired academic who has acted as an expert and special adviser to senior politicians in the UK.  He is Honorary Professor of Management with Heriot-Watt University and with Queen Margaret University in Scotland, and with the Victorian Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Over his 35-year academic career, Mike was Head of School and Founding Dean of Faculty in UK and Australian Business Schools.

Mike’s area of research interest is in assessing and managing service quality, particularly in the public sector.  He has an extensive record of publications. Mike’s interests continue to be in Strategic and Operations Management in public services. Mike took time out of academia to act as Chief of Staff to the First Minister of Scotland and acted as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Scotland and the UK Home Secretary. He volunteered with Yorkhill Childrens’ Charity in Glasgow, and acted as a foster-grandad with Extended Families Australia.

Angela Gluck (Member: Management Committee and Member: Influencing Committee)

Angela Gluck has worked as a teacher, lecturer, teacher-trainer, school inspector and curriculum creator, has authored over 40 books on religion, history and education, and broadcasts on these subjects. Much of her professional life has centred around interfaith dialogue and issues related to life in a pluralist society. From 1993 to 2011, she co-directed an educational consultancy specialising in equality and diversity; she is currently a freelance educator, trainer and writer. Angela was Acting Chair of the Board of Trustees between January 2022 and January 2024.

Laura Hughston 

Laura Hughston is a programme quality expert with extensive expertise in international development and humanitarian programmes. Pioneer developer of child-centred evaluation practices, in 2015 Laura became the first to empower children, the youngest of which was only 10 years old, to lead an entire evaluation of a multi-year and multisectoral programme. Her work focuses on enabling programme quality and fostering innovation by inclusively guiding teams to visualise the desired change and use evidence to align intentions with results.

Laura continues to write, work and consult and remains a passionate advocate for inclusion, child-participation and accountability.

Alison Hylton-Potts (Honorary Treasurer and Member: Management Committee) 

Alison Hylton-Potts joined the Board in December 2021. Alison is a chartered accountant with 15 years’ experience in finance including accounting, audit and Finance Director roles in a range of companies from start up to FTSE 100. In 2018 Alison changed career and is currently working as a midwife in a London NHS Trust. Alison’s experience also includes supporting charities from a finance, governance and commercial perspective having held Trustee and Audit Committee Chair roles in other organisations.

Lam Joar 

Lam is passionate about sports and education. He is dedicated to using education and sports to raise awareness of refugees. Lam’s advocacy is inspired by his own journey. At the age of just 15, he was forced to leave his home country in South Sudan and become a refugee in Kenya. Lam was a 100m runner and was selected among the first group of the Refugee Olympics in 2015. Following the 2016 Olympics, Lam decided to focus on his higher education and transitioned to working for the Refugee Olympic Team through the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation and became the Camp Coordinator. He was the Refugee Team Assistant at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He graduated with a master’s degree in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from Oxford University. Lam is currently working as a Sales Advisor at On Running.

Christina Moore (Member: Influencing Committee) 

Christina Moore has worn many hats in the digital field and is largely known as a digital audio evangelist. Christina has been a Judge for The British Podcast Awards, Audio Production Awards and facilitated the Spotify Sound Up Accelerator Programme, as part of her mission to bring engaging content to audiences and champion the careers of creatives.

Lauren Murray 

Lauren ‘Lori’ Murray is a Humanitarian Child Protection Lead for Save the Children focusing on Ukraine and the regional refugee response. Lori began her career as a social worker for resettled refugee youth in New York. Since then, Lori has deployed to over 10 humanitarian responses including Iraq, Syria, Colombia, Mozambique, and most recently, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. Lori specializes in developing systems that protect unaccompanied children in an emergency response, working to reunify families or providing safe, alternative care for children.Lori currently co-leads the Cash for Protection Task Force under the Global Protection Cluster, as well as the Unaccompanied and Separated Children’s Task Force under the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.

Prior to joining Save the Children, Lori held various roles working in child protection and gender based violence with the IRC, NRC and ACTED. Lori holds a Bachelor’s from New York University and a Master’s from Columbia University, both in Social Work.

Rabia Nasimi 

Rabia Nasimi has ten years’ public and voluntary experience in the field of social research and policy, with a specific focus on migration and integration. With an MSc in Sociology (Research) from LSE and an MPhil in Sociology from Cambridge, she is currently the Research and Insights Lead for the Afghan Resettlement Team, within the Local Government and Communities Directorate at DLUHC. Within the VCSO sector, she was a Strategic Development Manager at the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association, where she was responsible for cultivating funders and , managing relationships, and contributed to the production of inspiring funder reports.

Arnaud Vervoitte (Deputy Chair and Member: Management Committee)

Arnaud Vervoitte is INQUEST’s Operations and Development Director. A politics graduate holding a Master’s degree in global politics and race relations, he has worked with refugees for 12 years, including as the manager of a national children education project and as the senior manager responsible for asylum support in London, West Midlands and the East of England at the Refugee Council. Prior to joining INQUEST, Arnaud was the managing director of Just for Kids Law, a legal charity supporting children and young people. He is a passionate campaigner on social justice issues, including anti-racism, gender equality and the rights of refugees and migrants.

Senior Volunteers

Carrie Chan: Volunteer Coordinator (Packs Project)

Carrie Chan has a background in Human Resource Management with experience mainly in the commercial sector. She is currently working at a commercial bank. Carrie moved to the UK in 2021 due to the worsening political situation in Hong Kong that has been developing since social movements in 2019. She started volunteering with The Separated Child Foundation in September 2022, in the hope of providing practical help to children and young people who had no choice but to flee to the UK as refugees or asylum seekers.

Roma Felstein: LinkedIn Volunteer and Writer

Roma Felstein is a freelance journalist. She worked as a radio producer with the BBC and a tv executive for satellite broadcasting before setting up a training company. She currently volunteers with a number of asylum organisations.

Naomi Joffe: Coordination of Partner Evaluations (Packs Project) 

Naomi Joffe works at the Hearts Milk Bank, managing a team that processes donated human milk for sick babies. She and her daughters volunteer as Purple Packers and fundraise at school as it’s a simple way to get real and vital help to children when they really need it.

Ben Koh (Pack Leader)

Ben Koh has an MSc in Global Development and works in renewable energy. He is UK-born of French-Chinese origin: his paternal grandparents fled the cultural revolution in China, then genocide of Chinese in Malaysia; his maternal grandparents lived through German occupation in WW2. He believes in offering support and sanctuary to those displaced by modern turmoil. He is glad to offer help to Separated Child so that children and young people arriving on our shores have the essentials to make a safe, dignified start to a new chapter in their lives.

Nola Pocock (Pack Leader)

Nola Pocock is a communications consultant in the technology sector. She originally hails from South Africa but has been living in the UK for over two decades now. Nola started volunteering with The Separated Child Foundation in July 2023.  She hopes that even small actions can lead to a positive impact and make a significant difference.

Naji Harfouche (Pack Leader)

Naji Harfouche has been volunteering with The Separated Child Foundation since January 2023. He is a data scientist and programme manager working in the international development sector.  Previously he used to be a key worker at a housing placement for unaccompanied young people seeking asylum in the UK. He is committed to creating a supportive and welcoming environment for people who are seeking asylum and safety.

Hinna Samdani (Pack Leader)

Hinna Samdani is a marketing manager in the technology sector with a business background. She has been volunteering with The Separated Child Foundation since August 2022 and hopes to use her experience at the charity to raise more awareness and about displaced and unaccompanied minors entering the UK.

Joe Swift (Pack Leader) 

Joe Swift is an environmental economist. He has been volunteering with The Separated Child Foundation since March 2022 as he’s passionate about justice, fairness and helping those most in need.

Suraya Terro (Pack Leader)

Suraya Terro came to London from Lebanon in 1999 as a young child with her mother and two brothers. As a family, they were forced to flee their country due to the civil war and subsequent economic and political issues. Suraya’s experience as an asylum seeker ignited her interest in history, politics and economics and holds a degree in International Relations. She currently works in finance for a large International Asset Management Company. She also chairs the Educate Pillar at her BAME care resource group. Suraya is passionate about equality, diversity and helping young children and adults who have been impacted by war and conflict like she was. Suraya has been volunteering with The Separated Child Foundation since 2022.

Patrons

Ama Ata Aidoo

Ama Ata Aidoo, a playwright, poet and novelist, has won many literary awards, including the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize for her novel Changes. Her writing particularly deals with the tension between Western and African world views. Many of her protagonists are women who defy stereotypical female roles. Ama Ata has spent a great deal of time lecturing in Africa, Europe and North America.

Lord (Alfred) Dubs

Lord (Alfred) Dubs has held key positions in local and national government, and in several influential organisations. He was Labour MP (1979—87), Director of the Refugee Council (1988—95) and since 1994 a Labour life peer, Baron Dubs of Battersea. A child refugee fleeing Nazism, he champions the rights of unaccompanied refugee children: he successfully introduced an amendment to the Immigration Act 2016 to offer them safe passage to Britain during the refugee crisis.

Photo credit: Chris McAndrew. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Dr Anthony Julius

Dr Anthony Julius is a prominent British lawyer and academic, whose doctorate is in English literature. A highly regarded litigation lawyer, he has acted for many high profile clients. He is currently Deputy Chair of the prestigious London law firm Mishcon de Reya, Chair of the London Consortium and Vice-President of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

The Baroness Neuberger DBE 

The Baroness Neuberger DBE is a rabbi and social reformer, engaging in various voluntary and philanthropic roles. She has given advice to national government and local authorities, especially in the field of health and medical care. She was created a life peer in 2004 and in 2007 was appointed chair of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering. She served as Senior Rabbi of West London Synagogue 2011—20. One of her most influential books was The Moral State We’re In.

Jonathan Ross OBE 

Jonathan Ross is a film critic, chat show host and presenter of television and radio. His Queen’s Birthday Honour in 2005 was given for services to broadcasting and he has also received awards from the entertainment industry, including BAFTA three times for television entertainment performance and, in 2008, the Sony Gold Award ‘Music Radio Personality of the Year’.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore – This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Founders

Jonty Hurwitz

Jonty Hurwitz, formerly a financial entrepreneur, is an engineer, technological innovator and scientifically inspired artist who is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. His anamorphic statues, using Nano technology, are recognised as the smallest human form ever created. Elements of his work focus on the experiences of displacement and refuge.

Sarah Kleiman

Sarah Kleiman is a solicitor, and the General Counsel of a large City law firm.  She has a keen interest in professional ethics and diversity, and speaks on both topics. She is proud to be from Grimsby.

Robin Richardson (Founding Chair – 2007-14) 

Robin Richardson was formerly a director of a consultancy specialising in equality and diversity, the director of the Runnymede Trust and a local authority chief inspector for education. He is the author of many publications on equality and diversity issues, and is a frequent lecturer at national and international conferences. He was drafting editor of Living with Difference, the report of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life (2015).

Mark Friend (Trustee – 2007-14, Chair – 2014-21) 

Mark Friend is Strategy Director at Cancer Research UK. He was previously at the BBC where he led the strategy team and developed and managed new digital products such as iPlayer Radio, podcasting and music services. Mark is also a Non-Executive Director of North East London NHS Foundation Trust. He previously worked as a management consultant and in business development for media and public service organisations. Mark is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a qualified Executive Coach.

Michael Marx FCA (Honorary Treasurer – 2007-2022) 

Michael Marx is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a former member of the UK Listing Authority Advisory Committee. He was chief executive of Development Securities plc, listed on the London Stock Exchange, for 21 years up to July 2015; and was chair of Nationwide Accident Repair Services plc, listed on AIM, for 9 years to May 2015. He is currently Trustee of The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, JW3 and The Jonathan Levene Music Scholarship.