Nagina
Nagina Zahra is a former Hazara refugee from Afghanistan whose journey has shaped her purpose as an educator and community advocate. A mother of two daughters, she pursued her dream of becoming a qualified teacher, setting a powerful example for mothers and women of Afghanistan. She became one of the first female teachers at Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre, the first refugee-led school in Indonesia in 2014.

Today, Nagina teaches English Literature and EAL/D at St Aloysius College in Adelaide. As a passionate educator, she also collaborates with Cisarua Learning and their teacher training program as a trainer for refugee teachers and community leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Her lived experience gives her a deep sense of empathy and understanding, enabling her to mentor and support both students and teachers as they navigate their own educational journeys.

Muzafar
Former-refugee Muzafar Ali is a highly-regarded human rights activist and photographer. Between 2004-2011 he worked for the United Nations in Afghanistan and in 2014, while living as a refugee in Indonesia, he started the first refugee-led school. He was resettled to Australia in 2015 and since then he’s advocated for refugees in Australia and around the world. He is the 2022 Fred Hollows Humanitarian of the year, Patron of the Rural Australians for Refugees, Board Member of the Jesuit Refugee Service and has exhibited his photographs in Afghanistan, the Republic of Korea, USA, UK, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia. He worked as a cultural consultant on Windmill Theatre’s Amphibian (2020) and the Cate Blanchett TV mini series Stateless (2020) and produced and featured in documentaries The Staging Post (2017) and Watandar, My Countryman (2022).