Role Models for Change Skoll Foundation

Human rights lawyer Karen Tse is Founder and CEO of International Bridges to Justice, an organization that provides prisoners in 48 countries with access to justice and prevents torture as a tool for confession. Every day in countries throughout the world, hundreds of thousands of citizens are arbitrarily detained, tortured, and denied access to counsel. International Bridges to Justice defends those citizens with early access to properly trained counsel--justice defenders. Journalist Ray Suarez sat down with Tse to find out how International Bridges To Justice fights to preserve the rule of law, end investigative torture, and implement the judicial infrastructure that protects the rights of prisoners.

According the UNHCR, there are 25.4 million people currently registered as refugees, and over half of them are under the age of 18. These numbers will continue to grow as global conflicts, economic volatility, and climate change force many more to flee their homelands. What can be done to ensure that refugee youth have access to quality mental healthcare, education, and opportunities? How can we better support their integration into communities of resettlement and their re-integration when they return home?

Muzoon Almellehan is an education activist and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador. She fled her homeland in Syria, and sought refuge in Jordan where she advocates for the rights of children to access quality education. Journalist Ray Suarez sat down with Almellehan to hear more about her experience as a refugee and her efforts to ensure educational opportunity for every child.

Sherrie Westin is President of Global Impact and Philanthropy for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street. She leads the Workshop’s efforts to serve vulnerable children through mass media and targeted initiatives in the United States and around the world. Westin spearheaded a partnership to create the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response, bringing critical education and nurturing care to refugee children in the Syrian response region.

Working with the International Rescue Committee, she led Sesame Workshop’s efforts to compete for and win a historic $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to fund this work. With an additional $100 million grant from The Lego Foundation, this initiative has expanded to Bangladesh. She also oversees Sesame Street in Communities, Sesame’s comprehensive initiative designed to give children the tools they need to overcome traumatic experiences.

Journalist Ray Suarez interviewed Westin to learn about Sesame Street’s efforts in Afghanistan, and how its local, culturally appropriate programs promote gender equity and plant the seeds for transformative societal change.

Essam Daod co-founded Humanity Crew in 2015 to provide first response mental health and psycho-social support for refugees and people in crisis. Journalist Ray Suarez sat down with Daod to hear more about his unique “inverted pyramid” approach to mental health support, and how communities have the capacity to heal themselves.

Emily Bancroft is President of VillageReach, an organization that works to transform health care delivery to reach everyone. VillageReach won the Skoll Award in 2006. Its initiative in Malawi, Chipatala cha pa Foni, a toll-free hotline that provides health and nutrition information to people in remote communities, is an international model for closing rural healthcare gaps.

VillageReach recently transitioned Chipatala cha pa Foni successfully to the Malawian Ministry of Health which has made the service its primary platform for COVD-19 information. James Nardella, former Skoll Foundation Principal and current Chief Program Officer for Last Mile Health, sat down with Emily in April of 2019 to talk about her personal journey to this work, why government partnerships are a crucial lever for systems change, and her vision for global health equity.

Sohini Bhattacharya is the CEO and President of Breakthrough, a global human rights organization working to drive culture change to build a world where all people live in dignity, equality, and respect. Among its many initiatives, Breakthrough reaches nearly half a million adolescents in India through school and community programs, ensuring girls face less discrimination, complete school, and delay their age at marriage. James Nardella, former Skoll Foundation Principal and current Chief Program Officer for Last Mile Health, sat down with Sohini to talk about the hard work of shifting culture norms of gender-based violence and discrimination. James started the conversation by asking Sohini about her childhood in India.