Our Team

Awatef Sheikh

Co-founder and CEO

Awatef Sheikh previously worked for various international grant-making organisations focusing on the Middle East, including five years as the Managing Director of the London based Galilee Foundation before she left to co-found Ajyal Foundation for Education in 2018. Before she moved to the UK Awatef worked extensively with civil society organisations in the West Bank and within the indigenous Palestinian society in Israel focusing on culture, education, civic and human rights. She also worked as a freelance journalist and has written for various media organisations. Awatef has a BA in Social Work from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an MSc in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ruba Farkh

Volunteer
Outreach and projects development

Ruba is an environmental and sustainability professional and has worked in the environmental field in the Middle East in the past 20 years. Ruba is a chemical engineer by training.

Passionate about education, Ruba has been supporting Ajyal from its early days and we are ever grateful for her dedication and committment!

Tala Shurrab

Reseacher
Wellbeing in Education

Tala was born and raised in Gaza, Palestine. Tala completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at the Lebanese American University in Lebanon. She then pursued a master’s degree in Psychology and Education at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on trauma and resilience amongst conflict-affected populations in community and educational settings. Tala is currently based in London and works in primary mental health, supporting clients with complex emotional needs and other chronic mental health challenges in their treatment. Tala supports Ajyal’s work with a focus on projects that support the psychology and wellbeing of children in education.

Jenna Mackle

Fundraising & Comminications Officer

Jenna was born in Northern Ireland but has spent the last 12 years living and working abroad. With an undergraduate in classical violin and a masters in Music in Development, Jenna works across the niche sector of the arts and social development. As a music journalist, charity grant writer and cultural project manager, her work has taken her around the world to countries such as Tanzania, Cuba, Brazil and Colombia. Jenna supports Ajyal Foundation in fundraising, project development and communications.

Board of Trustees

Caroline Rooney - Chair

Caroline is Professor of African and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Kent (UK), and she works mainly on liberation struggles and their expression in the arts and popular culture. Her research programmes include ‘Radical Distrust’ (ESRC), ‘Imagining the Common Ground’ (AHRC) and ‘Egypt’s Living Heritage’ (AHRC Newton), with projects on trust-building in Beirut, the predicaments of Palestinian prisoners, the Arab uprisings and community engagement through the arts in Egypt. As an arts activist, she co-produced The Keepers of Infinite Space, a play on Palestinian prisoners (Park Theatre, 2014); co-directed, with Rita Sakr, the film White Flags(2014); and co-directed, with William Parry, the film Breaking the Generations: Palestinian Prisoners and Medical Rights. (2015) Her latest book is Creative Radicalism in the Middle East: Culture and the Arab Left After the Uprisings (I.B. Tauris, 2020) and she is currently the Co-I on Raphaël Lefèvre’s research programme ‘The Crime-Terror Nexus from Below: Criminal and Extremist Practices, Networks and Narratives in Deprived Neighbourhoods of Tripoli’ (ESRC).

Kanwal Abdulhameed - Trustee

Kanwal is a Phd researcher at the University of Exeter, and a member of the Gulf Studies department and the European Centre for Palestine Studies. She works on modern histories of the Gulf. Her interests include critical histories, gender studies, education, bringing academia beyond the university, and social justice.

Advisory Board

Jasr Kawkby

Dr Jasr Kawkby is a consultant Paediatrician. He is a Fellow at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

A Co-Founder of Ajyal and a former Trustee of the Foundation, Jasr is a member of the Selection Committee for Ajyal's Sindyan Scholarship Programme.

Elizabeth Coombes

Dr Elizabeth Coombes is an HCPC registered music therapist living and working in South Wales. She is the course leader of the MA Music Therapy. Her research interests include working with displaced people, crosscultural music therapy and the support music can bring to children and families.
Liz first worked in Palestine in 2009, delivering a skillsharing project in the Bethlehem area. This work continues today with Palestinian teachers and school counsellors using music groups to support social and emotional development.

Neil Serougi

Neil Serougi
Following a career in the Criminal Justice System and the NHS, Neil subsequently led several governance projects centred around rights and fairness with regard to data privacy, disclosure and consent. Experienced in charity trusteeship and governance, Neil oversaw numerous Economic and Social Research Council projects, in particular developing Impact Strategies for Civic Society Organisations. With a long interest in the Middle East and Palestine he previously voluntarily worked for UNWRA with refugees abroad and is currently a trustee with FQMS (Quds Foundation for Medical Schools).

Terry Weber

Terry Weber worked for Verizon for 24 years as a cable and fibre optic splicer and an electronic technician. Terry became a mathematics teacher in 1996 at the Urban Academy Laboratory High School in New York City. He became the head of the math department in 2006 and retired in 2012 when he started working for the New York Performance Standards Consortium (the Consortium is made up of 38 state schools, 36 in New York City) as a math coach and in policy development for mathematics education. He continues his work with the Consortium working with math teachers in the classroom and in professional development seminars.
Terry has a BS in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Masters of Liberal Studies with a concentration in Urban Education from the City University of New York.

Najat Armaly

A co-founder of Ajyal and a former Trustee, Najat has been involved with and supporting the Foundation since its early days.

Najat has been active in a number of charities and civil society organisations and has volunteered with several relief campaigns. She is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the educational organisation the Forum for Sexuality and was a Board member at Kayan Organization. She has a BA in nursing from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, an MA in Management of Health Systems from Clark University USA, and an MA in Gender Studies from Bar Eilan University. Najat is also a trained personal Coach.

Najat was the head nurse at the Tuberculosis Center in Nazareth Hospital for the past 15 years. Before she joined Nazareth Hospital, she worked as a Deputy Head Nurse in the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for 10 years.

Toufic Haddad

Dr Haddad is the Acting Director of the Kenyon Institute, the Jerusalem branch of the Council for British Research in the Levant. A co-founder of Ajyal former Trustee, Toufic continues to support Ajyal and it's work as member of the Advisory Board.

He is a social scientist whose work focuses on the political economy of development and conflict in the Middle East, and Israel-Palestine in particular. Toufic has an eclectic professional and academic career working as a journalist, editor, publisher, researcher, and consultant. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Middle East Studies from Trinity College [CT, USA]; an MA from New York University (Near East Studies and Journalism); and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (Development Studies). Toufic has also lectured at SOAS, King’s College London,and Birzeit University.