Everyday Heroes

Muzoon Almellehan, 19, is a Syrian refugee and education activist.

Muzoon has been campaigning for children’s education in emergencies since she was forced to flee Syria in 2013 with her family. Muzoon started her campaign in Jordan, where she was living as a refugee in camps for three years, including 18 months in Za’atari. As part of a UNICEF-supported back-to-school campaign, she first advocated for more girls to go to school in August 2013 and went from tent to tent speaking with parents of children who were at risk of child marriage or early labor. Over the next two and a half years she became synonymous with standing up for the rights of children, particularly girls, to stay in or go back to school. She accompanied Malala on two visits to the camp.

Muzoon is currently studying A-levels in Newcastle, United Kingdom, where she has been resettled with her family. She is the youngest UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador ever appointed and offers a powerful, credible, authentic voice on education in emergencies. She is also a No Lost Generation (NLG) campaign champion for UNICEF Middle East and North Africa.

In April 2017, she travelled to Chad with UNICEF to meet refugee children forced to flee unspeakable violence. During the six-day visit, Muzoon saw the impact of the Boko Haram insurgency on children’s education, reminding her of her own experiences four years ago when she was uprooted by the Syria conflict. She made a strong connection with the children she met including a 16-year-old girl who was abducted by Boko Haram outside her school in Nigeria at the age of 13 and was drugged, exploited and abused for three years before fleeing to Chad. Muzoon also met children who are able to get an education for the first time, and community members who, like her once, are taking huge risks to get children into school. On the last day of the mission, Muzoon delivered an emotional speech at a university in N’Djamena to an audience of 300 female university students.

Most recently Muzoon attended the G20 in Germany where she spoke at the Global Citizen concert and met with world leaders including Angela Merkel to ask them to protect every child’s right to an Education regardless of their background.

Waheed Arian is a senior radiology registrar and emergency medicine doctor in the UK with multiple degrees, awards and training in radiology, acute medicine, surgery, repatriation medicine, science, research, teaching, Advanced Trauma and Life Support (ATLS) and Advanced Life Support (ALS) from Cambridge University, Imperial University, Harvard Medical School, City and Guilds in London.

Dr. Arian is an emerging global inspirational and innovative leader who spent his childhood in war-torn Afghanistan suffering life-threatening diseases and terrible conditions with his family in a refugee camp.

He arrived in the UK as a refugee aged 15 without formal education and with just a few words of English. Dr. Arian worked incredibly hard to gain A-Levels plus admission to study medicine at Cambridge University and has subsequently acquired world-class qualifications and pioneering achievements by his early 30s.

Dr. Arian has been risking his life for more than a decade visiting Afghanistan regularly to teach local doctors. He realized that many UK-based medics wanted to help their colleagues in Afghanistan, but understandably could not take the risks of travelling there. Dr Arian then adapted the telemedicine approach to use cheap and easily accessible technology, and created Arian Teleheal.

For his pioneering work, Dr. Arian has been given the Presidential Award from HE Dr Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan, through his Minister Adviser on Health Matters. Dr. Arian was named as the Highly Commended HSJ Rising Star Healthcare Leader 2016 UK for his achievements, in a national competition open to 1.4 million NHS employees.

Dr. Arian has recently been appointed a NHS Innovation Fellow “to help transform healthcare and realize the vision set out in the Five Year Forward View”.

Dr. Arian’s remarkable life story, achieving so much from such challenging beginnings, and his subsequent work and achievements have been the focus of regional, national and international newspaper, radio and TV reports.

Using his ground-breaking work, and through his inspirational speeches in major national and international conferences, such as the first TEDxNHS event, Dr. Arian is promoting awareness of healthcare and education in war zones and in low resource countries.

Dr. Arian is planning to launch an educational International Academy in 2017 to provide self-development, communication, leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship strategies for people from all walks of life to fulfil their full potential so that they can contribute positively to their societies.

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos is a homicide prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office. Raised waiting tables in his family’s Greek restaurant in Lower Manhattan, he is a former amateur middleweight boxer who joined the U.S. Marine Corps at 19. He left active duty in 1988 to join the DA’s Office; but remained in the reserves, leading a counter-narcotics operation on the Mexican border, and serving in Desert Storm, South Korea, Lithuania, Guyana, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo.

Losing his apartment near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he was recalled to active duty and joined a counter-terrorism task force in Afghanistan, receiving a Bronze Star for actions against al-Qaeda. He then served in the Horn of Africa followed by three consecutive tours in Iraq, where he led the international investigation into the looting of Iraq’s National Museum. The first to expose the link between antiquities trafficking and terrorist financing, he has presented those findings in 22 countries, in venues including the United Nations, Interpol, British Parliament, the Peace Palace in The Hague, and the U.S. Senate. In 2005, he received a National Humanities Medal from President Bush for helping recover more than 6000 of Iraq’s treasures in eight countries. In 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan for his 6th post-9/11 combat tour.

Returning to the DA’s Office in October 2010, he still boxes for wounded veterans—with an 8-3 record since his 40th birthday. In 2012, he co-founded an annual charity boxing event, Battle of the Barristers, that has raised almost $600,000 since its inception. He also still continues the hunt for stolen antiquities; in the last five years, having recovered and repatriated thousands of priceless antiquities stolen from Greece, Italy, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Thailand—recently leading an investigation that resulted in the largest seizure of stolen antiquities in U.S. history: almost $150 million dollars in ancient statues stolen from Southeast Asia.

He holds a classics degree from Bucknell University; a law degree, a master’s degree in Classics, and a Recognition of Achievement in International Law from Columbia University; and a master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College. In addition to dozens of military decorations, he received the 2004 Public Service Award from the Hellenic Lawyers of America, 2007 Proclamation from the City of New York, 2009 Proclamation from the City of Philadelphia, 2011 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, 2016 International Giuseppe Sciacca Achievement Award from the Vatican, and was Grand Marshal of the 2010 Greek Independence Day Parade. Published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and military, archaeological, legal, and international journals, all royalties from his book, Thieves of Baghdad, are donated to the Iraq Museum.

Jim Estill, CEO of Danby Appliances, is a Canadian technology entrepreneur, executive and philanthropist.

Mr. Estill started a computer distribution business from the trunk of his car while in university. That modest business grew into a company doing $350,000,000 in sales before selling to SYNNEX in 2004. Mr. Estill then became CEO of SYNNEX Canada and grew sales from $800,000,000 to $2 Billion over five years.

Mr. Estill has invested in, mentored and advised many technology companies including Blackberry. He joined their board before they went public and served for 13 years.

In 2015, Mr. Estill grew distressed by the humanitarian crisis in Syria and he decided to sponsor the immigration of 50 Syrian families to Guelph, Ontario.

To achieve his ambitious goal, Mr. Estill decided to use the organizational skills he had developed over his long business career. For assistance, Mr. Estill called upon the Lakeside Church, the Salvation Army, Guelph’s Roman Catholic community, the Muslim Society of Guelph and Welcome In Drop-in Centre, as well as friends and business associates.

Arrangements were put in place to provide apartments, clothing, and English language instruction. Using his business network connections, Mr. Estill also helped arrange employment and career counselling. More than 800 local volunteers were registered and donated their time to the project.

Today, the total number of families that Mr. Estill is helping has grown to 58—more than 200 people. In addition to his own project, Mr. Estill is helping a nine-year-old local boy realize his family’s dream of sponsoring a Syrian family in Canada.

In recognition of his philanthropic efforts, Mr. Estill received the Order of Ontario in June 2017.

May Makhzoumi is president of the Makhzoumi Foundation as well as a board director of several Future Group companies. She sits on the advisory Board of FPI, Advisory board of LAU (Lebanese American University), Advisory Board of the AMIDEAST, Advisory Board of Institute of Family and Entrepreneurial Business. Recently elected to the Board of the WAAAUB (World
Alumni Association of AUB) and is participating in a committee for 150 years Celebration of the university. She is Member of President Club at AUB. Also sits on IC committee – Partnership for Excellence amongst others. She is a member of the Jury of UNESCO‐Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and a member of the National Commission of Lebanese
Women. Lately she has been invited to join the board of the American university of Afghanistan (AUAF).

The Makhzoumi Foundation was established in Lebanon in 1997 to help and enable fellow citizens to achieve self‐dependence and improved career prospects. The Foundation has organized four programs: Vocational Training; Micro‐Credit; Health Care; Development Program, in addition to the Internship Volunteer Unit and the Relief and Human Services Unit. Since its outset, the Foundation’s Training Centers Program has awarded hundreds of thousands of certificates, and its Health Program has benefited tens of thousands of families.

The Micro Credit Program has extended thousands of loans to Lebanese borrowers and the Development Program is directed at women, children and youth, and has benefited thousands of Lebanese citizens. The Foundation has received honorary trophies, and acknowledged internationally.

Ms. Makhzoumi has received many honorary trophies from different organizations and institutes, in appreciation for the many philanthropic deeds and developmental projects undertaken by the Foundation, being honored by the Canadian Lebanese Community in Canada and the Killarney School and Glengarry School in Canada and by the Buck Advisory Council in California whereby she received the Global Humanitarian Award 2014. In 2016 she was acknowledged with a tribute to heroes in the global campaign against violent extremism, and an award for outstanding humanitarian efforts in the Lebanon by UNESCO. She and her husband have created a chair at the American University of Beirut at the Olayan School of Business for Corporate Governance in the name of their late son Rami and have allocated an endowment at the International College for scholarship & leadership award in his name. In honoring of his 5th memorial a seminar room was pledged at the London Business School.

Ms. Makhzoumi has participated in many conferences in the Middle East, Europe, and the Far East, she has been a speaker and sat on different panels.

Denis Mukengere Mukwege is a Congolese gynecologist, born on March 1, 1955 in Bukavu.

He holds a BA in General Medicine from the Medical Faculty of Bujumbura, Burundi, a MA in Obstetrics Gynecology from Faculty of Specialized Medicine in Angers, France and a PhD in Medical Sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Dr. Mukwege has been working for over 18 years with survivors of sexual violence and women with severe gynecological problems at the Panzi Hospital which he founded in 1999.

The hospital and Panzi Foundation have been recognized for their pioneering work in specialized responses to sexual gender based violence, and their work in advocating for the rights and empowerment of Congolese women.

Dr. Mukwege is an outspoken advocate for quality health care for all, women’s rights and peace.

His action and dedication have been recognized worldwide with various awards among which: The United Nations Human Rights Prize (2008), the Belgian King Baudouin Prize and the French “Officier de la Légion d’Honneur” (2013).

In 2014, the European Parliament unanimously gave him their highest recognition: the Sakharov Prize. He also received the Seoul Peace Prize of 2016.

Different universities in Europe and America have given him honorary doctorate degrees such as the faculty of medicine in Umea, Sweden (2010), the University of Winnipeg with a doctorate of Laws (2014), and Harvard University with a doctorate of science (2015).

Dr. Mukwege is married to Madam Madeleine Mapendo Kaboyi; they have five children together.

Saudi thinker, writer and activist Mansour Al-Nogaidan has been described by the New York Times as “one of the most widely read critics of Islamist militancy and advocates of reform in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf today.” As executive director of the Dubai-based Al-Mesbar think tank, Al-Nogaidan has led a team of researchers and experts from different Arab countries in producing dozens of books and research papers on a broad range of topics facing Muslims in the twenty-first century.

A native of Buraida, a city north of Riyadh that is regarded as the bedrock of religious conservatism in the kingdom, the young Al-Nogaidan was attracted to an ultraconservative Wahhabi community known as the  Brotherhood of Buraida. Under the influence of the group’s leaders, he withdrew from mainstream Saudi society and embraced hardline interpretations of Islamic law, later emerging as a thought leader within the movement. In the early nineties, as the U.S.-led Coalition forces’ presence grew on Saudi territory in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, Al-Nogaidan’s prominence in the ultraconservative movement grew, leading to his arrest.

In prison, Al-Nogaidan became an avid reader, immersing himself in the intellectual heritage of Muslim rationalists, the writings of contemporary Arabian philosophers, and global literature and history from China to the West. Once free, he broke with his past, and began to espouse a new worldview. He called on fellow Saudis to isolate Islamist preachers and bring embrace tolerance, diversity and dignity for all. Charges of blasphemy and death threats followed, and for his criticism of the Wahhabi establishment, he braved a sentence of 75 lashes.

Unyielding in the face of pressures, Al-Nogaidan found a sympathetic audience of Saudis and other Gulf Arabs who were attracted to his embrace of a humanist, reform-minded and outward-looking vision. Through his books, newspaper columns and regular television appearances, Al-Nogaidan became a voice for rapprochement within the Muslim faith, and for building bridges to other religions and cultures. He unequivocally denounced Holocaust denial in Arabic discourse, and introduced Gulf Arabs to the history and travails of Yemeni Jews. As ISIS rose in the region, he organized a campaign to raise awareness in the Arab world of the mass murder of Yazidis and the sexual slavery practiced by the terrorists. In the wake of the terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket in Paris in January 2015, Al-Nogaidan led a delegation of Gulf intellectuals and editors to Paris and vehemently denounced the attacks at a public meeting at UNESCO, urging French Muslims “to abide by the law of your land, as your first duty.”

Sammy Rangel is a man of many talents: he is first a father. He has Native American roots as well as Mexican heritage. He is a second-degree black belt, practices mixed martial arts, is a singer on a Native American drum. He is an author, social worker, peace activist, speaker, and trainer, with a gripping story.

His part autobiography and part manual, Fourbears: The Myths of Forgiveness, was launched in Dublin, Ireland in 2011 at the Summit Against Violent Extremism. It is in schools, colleges, youth detention centers, jails, AODA and mental health treatment centers, Human Services Departments, and in hands all over the world.

In 2011, Mr. Rangel co-founded Life After Hate, Inc., a 501(c)(3) U.S. nonprofit, with former members of the American violent far-right extremist movement. Through powerful stories of transformation and unique insight gleaned from decades of experience, Life After Hate serves to inspire, educate, guide, and counsel.

Whether working with individuals who wish to leave a life of hate and violence or helping organizations (community, educational, civic, government, etc.) grappling with the causes of intolerance and racism, Life After Hate works to counter the seeds of hate we once planted. Through personal experience and highly unique skill sets, we have developed a sophisticated understanding about what draws individuals to extremist groups and, equally important, why they leave. Compassion is the opposite of judgment and we understand the roles compassion and empathy play in healing individuals and communities.

Kochar Saleh, a lieutenant in the Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. For her inspiring leadership as a woman in organizing local Kurdish resistance to the brutal onslaught of ISIS in northern Iraq, for helping the Yazidi and Christian communities, and for her active participation in the liberation of Mosul.

Kochar Saleh was born in January 1990 in Dohuk in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. She was a teenager when, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Kurdistan Regional Government was established as a legal entity recognized in the new Iraqi constitution. After graduation from high school in 2008, Kochar volunteered to join the Peshmerga forces, the regular military force of the KRG, and graduated from Zakho Military Academy. An intelligent, energetic and compassionate woman, Kochar quickly distinguished herself as a leader and was given the command of a unit of women soldiers. She led her unit on several missions to secure and save Yazidi and Christian villages attacked and harassed by ISIS forces. She was a first-hand witness to the barbarity and the atrocities that the henchmen of ISIS committed against the citizens of northern Iraq, particularly the minorities, and the wanton destruction of cultural heritage sites in the area by the terrorists. Lieutenant Kochar’s unit has worked closely with the U.S.-led Coalition forces in northern Iraq. She led her fighters in the courageous and protracted battle to liberate Mosul.

After losing her son in a terrorist attack, Latifa Ibn Ziaten has devoted her life to combatting radicalization with tolerance and interfaith understanding.

Born in Morocco, Ms. Ibn Ziaten moved to France as a young bride of 18. She raised five children, teaching them to value the education she never had and to embrace their dual cultural identities.

In 2012, her life was shattered when an Islamist terrorist went on a killing spree that ended with the death of her son Imad, a French soldier. Desperate to channel her grief into something positive, she founded the Imad Association for Youth and Peace, starting a grassroots campaign to intervene in troubled communities. Ms. Ibn Ziaten crisscrosses France promoting interfaith dialogue and the importance of helping young people develop a positive identity and sense of responsibility.

As France deals with terror attacks and reports of rising extremism, Ms. Ibn Ziaten is a brave and uniquely credible voice for hope and coexistence.

Musician, actor, former child soldier, and political activist, for his efforts to bring peace and reconciliation to his people through music and art.

A Yazidi woman who survived the massacre of her family and sexual enslavement by ISIS, for her valorous exposure of atrocities committed by terrorists against her people.

New York Times columnist, for his steady focus on the root causes and cultural and political ramifications of violent extremism.

Co-founder of Teachers Against Violent Extremism, for his courageous and innovative work fighting the influence of Al-Shabab in Kenya.

Director General of Al-Arabiya TV, for his outspoken advocacy of tolerance, freedom of the press, and the rights of minorities and women in the Gulf region.

Honored for their lifetime dedication to expose and bring Nazi war criminals to justice, and their tireless efforts to use the lessons of history to denounce racism and bigotry.

A team of students at the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), winners of the Peer-to-Peer Challenging Extremism Initiative award organized by the State Department, for their innovative approach to countering hate speech on the internet.

A radio journalist-turned-civil society activist, for her resilient campaign against religious intolerance in Nigerian schools and for leading a grassroots multi-faith effort to denounce Boko Haram.