The following people serve as Advisers to Project Mosaic:
Ahlam Akram
Ahlam Akram is a writer and campaigner for human rights, equal opportunity for men and women, and a fair, peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East. She is Founder and Director of BASIRA (British Arabs Supporting Integration, Recognition and Awareness), which promotes cultural understanding by using Middle East films to explore human rights, identity politics, immigrant issues and other subjects relevant to people in Arab countries and in the Arab Diaspora in Europe. A Palestinian-born Briton, she has appeared many times on Arabic and UK television and has written for Arabic newspapers including Al-Quds, Al Hayat and Al Sharq al Awsat. In the UK, Ahlam serves on the executive committee of the Arab-Jewish Forum and is a patron of the British Friends of Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam, a charity supporting the reconciliation work by the Arab-Jewish village in Israel of the same name. She has spoken frequently in synagogues and previously co-chaired the Friends of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Parents.
Ahmed Abd-Elghany
Ahmed Abd-Elghany is a social worker specialising in building bridges between different ethnic and religious communities in the United Kingdom. He has served in local government in London’s Westminster Council as Faith Communities Development Worker and has worked with housing associations and in the non-profit sector. The impact of Ahmed’s community work was recognised with an invitation to 10 Downing Street by then British prime minister Tony Blair in 2005. Ahmed is an Egyptian-British dual national and an expert on Egyptian history and culture.
Hester Abrams
Hester Abrams is an expert at building bridges between people of different cultures through her work as a mediator and communications strategist at her company, Incisive Conversations. Previously, as co-director of the UK charity One to One Children’s Fund, she promoted reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians through a project to help children on both sides suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. At London’s Tricycle Theatre and Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre she oversaw projects bringing together young British Muslims and Jews in creative collaboration, including the creation of the MUJU (Muslim-Jewish) theatre group. For 16 years, Hester was a journalist with Reuters. A founding trustee of Project Mosaic, Hester gained her MA from Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read Russian and German.
Mehran Charania
Mehran Charania is a chartered financial analyst based in London. He worked as a fixed-income analyst at Deutschebank and an equities analyst at AIG before taking on management of a family property business. Charania is Belgian and has Africa-born parents tracing their ancestry to India. He has a degree in accounting and finance from London School of Economics and a Masters degree from Boston University.
Paul Eedle
Paul Eedle is a senior journalist and expert on the Middle East, having reported from 24 countries on four continents. An Arabic speaker, born in Nigeria and educated in the UK, he ran Reuters news operations in Japan and the Americas. Paul is founder of Out There News, an online and television production company specialising in the Middle East.
Mona Eltahawy
Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning syndicated columnist and international public speaker on Arab, Muslim and gender issues. She describes herself as a proud liberal Muslim Egyptian-American. Mona was a journalist throughout the 1990s. She was a correspondent for Reuters in Cairo and Jerusalem, where she became the first Egyptian journalist to work for a Western news agency in Israel. Mona also reported from the Middle East for The Guardian newspaper and was a freelance journalist for U.S. News and World Report. Born in Port Said, Egypt, Mona moved to the United States in 2000 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. She was arrested in Cairo while covering protests in Tahrir Square, her left arm and right hand were fractured and she suffered sexual assault while in custody. Mona gives frequent lectures across North America, Europe and the Middle East. She is based in New York.
Dr Surinder Hundal
Dr Surinder Hundal is an expert in international business management , having held senior executive positions at Nokia and BT. Her company, Rippleseed, provides business innovation solutions. Born in Africa and raised in the UK, Surinder has also lived in continental Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the United States. She is an alumna of Cass Business School in London.
Zerafina Idris
Zerafina Idris is an entrepreneur and consultant from Malaysia. She is the founding director of Marebay Ltd, which imports/exports and consults for the food, beauty and home décor markets. Zerafina earned a BBA at Parsons School of Design in New York and an MBA at London Business School in the United Kingdom.
Carol Isaacs
Carol Isaacs is a classically-trained pianist, keyboard player and accordionist working in the pop and world music fields. She has recorded and toured with many international artists. Carol plays the accordion in Kavona and The London Klezmer Quartet, which specialise in traditional Jewish celebratory music from eastern Europe. She is a founding member of Yalla! (Arabic for “let’s go”), a women’s group of three Jews, three Muslims and a Christian that combines klezmer, spoken word and hip-hop. Yalla! uses music to create understanding between people of different backgrounds, performing at mosques, synagogues and world music festivals. Carol also performs with the Baghdad Ensemble, whose three British and three Iraqi members merge ancient Iraqi music with modern compositions. Born in the UK, Carol’s Sephardic Jewish ancestors lived for over 2,500 years in what is present-day Iraq.
Sheida Jaffer
Sheida Jaffer is a psychotherapist, specialising in cross-cultural dynamics and trauma work. She is Manager - Project Mosaic, Kenya, based in Nairobi. She has practiced psychotherapy in the UK and in Rwanda, where she helped women to overcome trauma and rebuild their lives following the genocide in 1994. Sheida serves on the advisory board of Enfrants de Dieu (Children of God), a non-governmental organisation that helps to rehabilitate street children in Rwanda, including those orphaned in the mass killings, and was previously on the board of Centrepoint, which helps young homeless people in the UK. A British national and an active member of the Ismaili Muslim community, Sheida was born in Congo and is of Indian descent. She speaks English, French, Swahili, Katchi and Gujurati.
Michael Mitzman
Michael Mitzman is an expert in legal matters, the non-profit sector and building bridges across ethnic and religious divides. Since 1988 he has worked at Mishcon de Reya law firm in London, as a Partner and later as a Consultant. Michael specialises in property work, the administration of complex estates and handles much of the firm’s pro bono and charity work. He set up the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for the British Government’s Home Office and handles the disposal and acquisition of investment properties for the London Sephardi Trust. Michael is Vice-Chairman of the Jewish Association for Mental Illness and a trustee of BritFriends UK and of British Friends of Neve Shalom Wahat al-Salam (two organisations committed to better Arab-Israel relations) and of the charity Community Without Frontiers. From 1960-62 Michael worked for the Israel Government Tourist Corporation, then part of the Prime Minister’s Office, during which time he was a regular broadcaster on Israel Radio. Michael’s languages are English, French, German, Italian and Hebrew.
Hassan Serdoud
Hassan Serdoud is a successful entrepreneur and business owner. His company, Profile Protection, provides security services to night clubs across the West End of London. Hassan is an expert in martial arts. Born in Morocco, he lives in London with his wife and daughter.
Ayman Suleman
Ayman Suleman is a dynamic youth worker helping to empower teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds in south London and to connect them into mainstream society. He is founding President of Aym Higher, a non-profit organisation that uses football to engage young people from Somali, Eritrean and other immigrant and host communities, to teach ethnic and religious tolerance, and to equip them with life skills. Born in Saudi Arabia of Eritrean parents, Ayman arrived in the UK at the age of two. He speaks English and Arabic, and has an undergraduate degree in youth work from Cheshire University.
