We work creatively and collaboratively, nurturing each other as we grow and learn together. We honour the presence of our collective skills as we work on Comhlámh’s vision of people coming together to imagine and activate possibilities for a world beyond injustice. We have a variety of skills and experience between us all including development education, drama and theatre education, financial management, communications, media, strategic management, policy, advocacy, global citizenship education programming, values-led international volunteering, research, administration, activism, international development, and public engagement. We see ourselves as deeply interconnected with each other, and we are fully committed to Comhlámh’s values of Respect, Integrity, Solidarity and Ecological Sustainability. Together, we nurture our resilience and wellbeing to sustain our activism and solidarity and to support our collective growth.

Aga, Caroline, Dervla, Elena, Fiachra, Grace, Julia, Silvana and Sive

Abdulai Mansaray

From a homeless asylum seeker to a final-year Law student and Community Link worker, Abdulai has had a transformative journey. Currently, Abdulai supports Ukrainian and IPAS refugees and asylum seekers’ families and young people, advocates for them on their behalf, and engages with diverse stakeholders and services.

In recognition of his work with refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, Abdulai was awarded the Black and Irish ‘Activist of the Year’ 2023 at the B.I.G Awards, hosted by RTÉ. This accolade reflects his dedication to fostering a culture of collaboration, respect, and diversity, which aligns with the core values of Comhlámh.

Having lived in Direct Provision for over three years in Ireland, Abdulai brings firsthand experience and a solution-focused, ambitious mindset to the board. His commitment to advocacy and change is evident through his involvement with various organizations – Abdulai serves as an advisory board member at Common Purpose Ireland, a Board Member at the North Inner City Safety Partnership, a Youth Leader with the Irish Refugee Council, an active member of the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI), and a Committee member with NYCI.

Abdulai has also contributed to numerous projects, including documentaries, research work, interviews, and speaking engagements focused on diversity, inclusion, and the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland. He co-authored a research and education booklet titled “Tight Spaces,” which has been selected by Educate.ie for use in a new English textbook for junior cycle students.

Through their role on the Comhlámh Board, Abdulai aims to change negative perceptions of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants, and to continue advocating for their rights and inclusion.

Aideen Elliott

Aideen has been active in solidarity movements in Ireland (We’re Not Leaving, Financial Justice Ireland, grassroots gatherings, Independent Workers’ Union, anti-war activism etc.), Morocco (GADEM – Moroccan organisation supporting migrants, Amnesty International), the UK (Justice for Cleaners, 3 Cosas, Save Carpenters Estate) and Greece (City Plaza squat, Refugee Support Europe, ECHO 360 solidarity kitchen). She received her MA in International Development from SOAS University of London in 2013 and, in 2021, completed her PhD at Maynooth University, during which time she was a research associate at l’Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB-LAMC) and an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholar.

Aideen’s PhD is a study on EU migration and asylum policy making following anthropological fieldwork amongst policy makers in Brussels. Aideen’s academic publications focus on the evolution of Ireland’s refugee and migration policy in an EU context, and she has lectured on the topics of EU policy making and migrant solidarity movements in UCD, UCC and Maynooth University. Aideen works at Oxfam Ireland as Senior Policy and Research Coordinator. She works on supporting the rights of migrants, including refugees, particularly in EU policy and practice and on just economies with a focus on debt. Aideen has begun collaborating with and attending events of Comhlámh since 2005 when as a member of Maynooth University’s Global Awareness Society she invited speakers from Comhlámh to university events on trade justice.

This initial contact led Aideen to attend many Comhlámh events and become more interested in the organisation. Working more closely with Comhlámh in the past year as a speaker at a First Wednesday event and then organising three events together has deepened Aideen’s interest in the organisation, which she is looking forward to pursuing in the capacity of Board Member.

Edith Chukwu

Edith Chukwu is Comhlmáh’s Development Education alumnus who is also a two-time Judge for The Diana Award  where she led a panel that oversaw nominations from the entire African Region. 

In Nigeria, she founded a non-profit organisation that provides tertiary education scholarships to young women from low-income homes in order tosalvage them from resorting to child/early marriage as a means of survival.  

In Ireland, she has volunteered in various capacities in her community (Waterford) and worked with the SCOOP Foundation as an Operations and Fundraising Assistant. She also performs spoken word and dance along with her seven-year old daughter which earned them Dignity Partnership’s award for promoting social change. 

Joining the Comhlamh board of directors is yet another opportunity and privilege for her to serve humanity as a global citizen, but ultimately, deepen her awareness of being the change.  

Gavin Timlin

Gavin has 18+ years’ experience in finance/data occupying senior roles relating to risk management and data analytics, most latterly as Chief Risk Officer for a fund management company – Crossroads Capital Management/HAL.

He is also the founder of CreateSound, a Social Enterprise delivering mobile music production services and tuition in outreach contexts across 100+ locations in Ireland, and TSLI, a start-up delivering job training and inclusion programmes for people seeking asylum in Ireland. Since March 2022 he has also been working in a consultant role for the Irish Refugee Council, supporting the process improvements, research and hands-on programme delivery for accommodation and employment projects, as well as research pieces, including Empathy Mapping.

He has a strong understanding of the refugee and migrant landscape in Ireland and abroad, having worked closely with multiple support organisations/NGOs on independent support projects in Ireland, Greece & Palestine. He haa also developed public support and resources as part of his participation with Comhlamh’s member group ‘Ireland Says Welcome’, including national mapping of resources, submissions to Oireachtas, and system ‘explainers’.

Karen Jeffares

Karen Jeffares is a human rights activist, educator, mother and farmer who lives in County Monaghan with her husband and two children. She has been a Comhlamh member since doing a “Coming Home” weekend in 2009 on her return from 6 months volunteering in Central America, though she then went on to leave and come home for many years after that! She has been involved in human rights, political advocacy and development education for almost 15 years. She holds an M.Phil in International Peace Studies from the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity College Dublin (2008). She has experience volunteering alongside communities in contexts affected by violence with experience on the US/Mexico border, in Northern Ireland, in Colombia and in Guatemala (between 2009 and 2013). She volunteered and worked with Peace Brigades International for over 10 years, first in the field projects (Colombia 2010-2012 and Guatemala in 2013) and then as founder and coordinator of the Irish branch of this international NGO (2014 – 2021). From 2014 she also became part of the PBI Strategic Development Committee (a committee on PBI’s international secretariat) and was involved in researching and writing an internal policy document on opening new projects; she also contributed towards the development of a 6 year Global Strategic Plan for PBI (2018-2023). Her time with Peace Brigades in particular gave her the opportunity to work with an international organisation whose actions and mandate are led by the explicit needs of local partners. She also learned a great deal about NGO management and Governance in the Irish context while setting up PBI Ireland – including engagement with the Comhláh’s Code of Good Practice for Volunteer Sending Agencies to which it became a signatory.

On return to Ireland in 2014 she also began working part-time as a DevEd facilitator with a variety of Irish NGOs (Afri, LASC, Comhlamh, PBI Ireland, Spiritan Education Trust, etc), which she continues to do today. In recent years she has co-founded a new organization in Co. Monaghan called Siolta Chroi (Seeds of the Heart), whose mission is to restore Ireland’s ecosystems and communities – they run workshops and other educational activities and projects that help people reconnect with the land and each other. She is currently home-schooling her 6-year-old daughter and setting up an independent Waldorf school for County Monaghan with a collective of parents in the county. She continues to believe that we can change the world for the better and is excited at the prospect of connecting with the work of Comhlamh and its member groups as a Board Member.

Lola Ade-Onojobi

Morgane Clarke

Morgane has a background working in international development and global health across academic and non-governmental sectors. She currently works as a Programme Support Officer for Dóchas – the Irish Association of Non-Governmental Development Organisations. Prior to working with Dóchas, Morgane worked as a health systems researcher within the RCSI team of the ‘Scaling up Safe Surgery for District and Rural Populations in Africa’ project. She is driven towards collaborative work which promotes human rights, with a particular interest in how gender and power dynamics influence equity and equality. This interest drew her towards Women in Global Health Ireland, where she has volunteered on the leadership team since 2020. In 2018 she joined Comhlamh’s Access to Medicines Ireland (AMI) group and became a member of Comhlámh. She holds an MSc in Global Health from TCD.

Niamh Phelan

Siobhán Reynolds

Úna Owens

Úna qualified as an accountant almost 20 years ago and has since then worked predominately in the not-for-profit sector both in Ireland and Overseas. Úna started her career with charitable organisations as the Country Accountant and a member of the senior management team with Concern Worldwide in Indonesia. Throughout her career, she has worked in a variety of leadership and senior financial management positions including roles with St Vincent De Paul, the Irish Embassy in Maputo and Western Care. Úna is passionate about the role of financial management in the charity sector in order to support organisations to work to the highest standards of accountability and transparency. Úna returned from Mozambique at the end of 2020 and now lives in Westport, Mayo where she continues to work with charity organisations in both Mayo and Dublin. 

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