We are currently working with 10 WAVE Youth Ambassadors from across Europe.
They are representing Albania, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Portugal, Sweden and Türkiye.
Ilvana Dedja
Albania
about
Ilvana is a lawyer specialized in human rights and international criminal law. She passionately advocates for a human rights-oriented justice on a daily basis. Ilvana is a Chevening Scholar and a Criminal Justice LLM alumna from Queen Mary University of London. She is a member of Youth Advisor Group to the UN in Albania, providing her leadership on gender equality and climate change. Her expertise encompasses providing legal education on women’s access to justice and monitoring the implementation of legislation against Domestic Violence in Albania at the Center for Legal Civic Initiatives. At present, Ilvana is providing her expertise in international criminal law as a legal intern at Kosovo Specialist Chambers.
Doga Gunduz
Cyprus
about
Doga was born and raised in Cyprus. She has been interested in human rights and feminism since her early years. While chasing her interest she volunteered for NGOs in her homeland such as KAYAD (Association of Women To Support Living) and took part in the organisation’s project which mainly focused on youth activism. Her main areas of interest are violence against women, institutionalised oppression of women and legal inequalities. She is currently working on her LLB degree at the University of Glasgow.
Raphaëlle Jouannic
France
about
Raphaëlle was born and raised in France where she studied communications and humanitarianism, and completed a year of women’s studies in Canada. She has just graduated with a master’s degree in humanitarian communications and project management, and she is currently working in the Division for Gender Equality at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Her areas of interest are gendered-based violence and the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.
Lena Östlund
France/Sweden
about
Lena is French-Swedish and passionate about defending girls and women’s rights to create a safe world for them, both offline and online. She is currently a Project Officer for the UN agency the International Telecommunication Union, where she works with various projects and initiatives for gender digital inclusion. Within this, she helps coordinate activities of the EQUALS Global Partnership to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide, a multistakeholder platform focusing on four key areas: Access, Skills, Leadership and Research. As a WAVE Youth Ambassador, Lena wants to contribute to preventing gender-based violence, through raising awareness and organizing events with other passionate and inspiring youth activists.
Aliz Bineth
Hungary
about
Aliz was born and raised in Hungary. She has been passionate about feminism ever since she can remember. She started complaining at an early age about why is it only her who was asked to set the table but not her brother. She is doing her bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Political Science at the Central European University in Vienna, where she focuses on women’s rights and its issues in every possible paper. She is mostly interested in gender roles and their reinforcement, reproductive rights, wider access to female health services, and lastly, combatting violence against women. She aims to create a set of tools with which daily gender-based violence could be answered, thus giving women more agency.
Milena Rusu
Moldova
about
Milena was born and raised in Chișinău, Moldova. She graduated from “Orizont” Theoretical Lyceum in 2022. In addition, she successfully completed two feminist courses at Barnard College, one psychology course at Georgetown University, and a neuroscience course at Columbia University. In 2020, Milena founded Feminismd, a youth-led organization to promote gender equality in Moldova. Since then, she has been responsible for managing funds and overseeing projects in the organization. Feminismd has trained 1000+ teenagers on diverse feminist topics: gender-based violence, beauty standards, the gender gap in STEM, and intersectionality. Under Milena’s leadership, Feminismd has had collaborations with UN Women Moldova, the National Coalition “Life without Family Violence”, NGO Genderdoc-M, and the Global Fund for Children through the Spark Fund Grant. Milena is currently taking a gap year to focus on her feminist work, after which she plans to major in Women’s and Gender Studies in college.
Lina Al-Hassany
Netherlands
about
Lina Al-Hassany is 25 years old and she lives in the Netherlands. Currently, she is almost graduating as a medical doctor, but she is also an active youth advocate for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Over the past years, she was engaged in volunteering with several national non-profit organizations, where she developed her communications, training and advocacy skills. Lina´s main interests in advocating are the focus on a global health and intersectional inclusive perspective combined with creative skills to engage with others. Besides advocating, she loves climbing, creative writing and the spoken word.
Teodora Mileska
North Macedonia
about
Teodora is born and raised in Skopje, North Macedonia. She has a bachelor’s degree in international and intercultural studies. She has been a passionate activist for human rights, as well as a peer educator for CSE and peacebuilding. Her main areas of interest are sexual and reproductive health and rights and violence against women. Teodora is also the founder of PERIOD Skopje initiative, which is fighting period poverty and stigma through period education.
Ines Consonni
Portugal/Italy
about
Ines is a passionate feminist based in Warsaw and politically active in Volt Europa as a Board member. Ines comes from Portugal where she studied International Relations and Political Science, she conducted her MA research on youth political participation. Her main areas of interest are women and girls’ political empowerment, sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls and campaigning to close the gender-pay gap and fight gender-based discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Ines also has considerable professional experience in data analytics and project management, as well as many years of volunteer work in soup kitchens, animal shelters and most recently in refugee centers in Warsaw. Ines wants to dedicate her life to fight for social equality.
Selin Ozunaldim
Türkiye
about
Selin is a 19-year-old activist from Istanbul, Türkiye. She is the youngest representative of UN Women’s global gender equality movement HeForShe in Türkiye. She is also one of the 300 globally selected National Gender Youth Activists for UN Women. She is the co-founder of the #GirlsWhoFIRST, a movement that encourages young girls to take part in robotics teams, and the founder of the We Ground Zero video interview platform to inspire Gen Z by listening/connecting them with video interview platforms and to people who made a difference. Alongside working with UNGEI as a Guiding Group Member for the Transform Education Campaign, Selin is the founder of the first Girl Up Club in Turkey, supported by the UN Foundation where she aims to provide a safe space where they could develop their leadership skills. She is the co-founder of the Girls Who Code movement in Türkiye, with an impact of 35,000 young people.
