Pari Ibrahim

Pari Ibrahim is the founder and executive director of the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF). She is Yezidi and originally from Iraq. She fled Iraq as a child with her family in 1991 during the Saddam Hussein regime, eventually settling in the Netherlands.

After the ISIS genocide of Yezidis in Sinjar, northern Iraq, in August 2014, Ms. Ibrahim founded FYF to provide support for Yezidi survivors and raise awareness of their plight. The foundation’s fundamental values include women’s rights, justice for survivors of gender-based violence and sexual violence, and the rights of ethno-religious minorities.

FYF has established women’s and children’s centers, a justice project, an enterprise and training center, and an office to combat gender-based violence, among others. They also conduct advocacy to promote greater humanitarian and human rights support to Yezidi civilians.

Guerline Jozef

Guerline Jozef dedicates her life to bringing awareness to issues that affect us all locally and globally, such as immigration, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and human rights violations.

Ms. Jozef is the co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), a US-based nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies. HBA provides migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, deportation defense, legal, and social services. It has a particular focus on Black migrants from the Caribbean and Africa, the Haitian community, women and girls, LGBTQA+ individuals, and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses.

Ms. Jozef is also the co-founder of the Black Immigrants Bail Fund, which provides free assistance and relief to Black immigrants. She is the founding member of the Cameroon Advocacy Network (CAN) fighting to get temporary protected status (TPS) and other protection for our Cameroonian community members.

For her leadership, she has been the recipient of prestigious awards—most recently, the Las Americas’ 2021 Border Heroes Award, the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, and the 2022 National Haitian American Elected Officials Network Community Champion Award.

Her motto in life is “Anpil Men Chay Pa Lou” (Haitian Creole – many hands lighten the load).