Meet the Team

Staff

Katie Commons

Director

Katie has worked in the asylum and refugee sector in London for 12 years, focussing on supporting asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants to be able to access key services, such as legal advice and therapy. Her work has included fundraising, project development, and management. Most recently, she worked as Head of Fundraising and Development at the Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, and has also worked at Refugee and Migrant Justice, Freedom from Torture, and the Migrants' Law Project.

Kieran Tang-Wright

Education Coordinator

Coming soon

Ed O'Driscoll

Southwark Law Centre Immigration Advice Partnership Solicitor

Advice and Advocacy Officer

Starting soon

Helen Mason

Food Bank Manager

Helen joined the AFRIL team in March 2017 and as of October 2019 has taken over as the Food Bank Manager. She is an experienced Volunteers Manager and practitioner of best practice in volunteering. Helen has set up and supported volunteer teams in university, social services, social enterprise, arts and health and community settings across the UK. She is a trained facilitator and project manager and used to supporting volunteers at all levels in organisations. Helen’s main responsibilities at AFRIL are the strategic involvement of volunteers in our work; ensuring AFRIL follows best practice in the selection, training and support of our volunteer teams. She also leads on our youth volunteering and beneficiary volunteering programmes and is our Centre Coordinator for the AQA Unit Award scheme of accreditation for volunteering. Helen also works part-time as the Volunteer Coordinator for Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (CARAS) in South West London.

Passion Fruit Class Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Ruth started working at AFRIL over 6 years ago and is the lead teacher at the Rainbow Club for the Early Years, Reception class.

Ruth has been working with children and young people for over 20 years. She is a community and youth worker and a family support worker for vulnerable people, and is also a registered childminder and nanny for SEN and care.

Ruth is very passionate and enthusiastic about the learning and development of children and young people in general, and strives to put a smile on every child's face and make a positive difference in their lives.

Vita Baliaj

Starfruit Class Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Vita currently teaches Starfruit Class, a group of 31 children from year 2 to year 4, at the Rainbow Club Supplementary School. Alongside her role at AFRIL she is a Graduate Teacher Trainee at Dalmain Primary School. Vita has extensive experience as a senior teaching assistant in a number of primary schools in the UK and has worked with many different ages and abilities within the primary teaching sector. She has a Bachelors degree in Education Studies from London South Bank University and studied primary education in Albania before moving to the UK. Vita has been working at AFRIL as a classroom teacher since 2015.

Ndaiziyei Murimba

Mango Class Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Ndaiziyei is a qualified teacher with a degree from Zimbabwe and a PGCE from Cumbria University. She has taught in primary schools in London and Kent as well as in High School in Zimbabwe. At Action for Refugees in Lewisham Ndaiziyei teaches the oldest class at our award winning supplementary school. She focuses on improving their attainment in English and Maths and has worked with over 100 children from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds during her time at AFRIL.

Melanie Hering

Art Leader - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Melanie teaches art at the Rainbow Club Saturday School. She has a Masters in Applied Theatre from Goldsmiths College and facilitates inclusive creative workshops in a wide range of community settings. She feels passionate about creating spaces where children and young people can freely express themselves and use their imaginations.

Olu Mason

Sport Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Coming soon

Kate Hashemi

Food Bank Assistant

Kate is the food bank assistant at Action for Refugees in Lewisham. She holds an MA in Iranian Studies from SOAS University of London and is the lead Iran researcher at the Middle East Consultancy Services. Kate has worked for several NGOs and private companies focused on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. She has provided consultancy for a range of projects, collaborating with international organisations such as the Danish Refugee Council and Danish Immigration Service. Kate speaks English and has an elementary command of Farsi. She has published papers on human rights violations in the Middle East. Kate's research is centred on the security situation in the MENA region, gender-based issues, and forced migration.

Trustees

Gareth Redmond-King

Chair of Trustees

Gareth has been a trustee of AFRIL since December 2016 and is currently vice-chair of the board of trustees.

Currently head of climate and energy at conservation charity, WWF-UK, he used to work in central government. Most recently, that meant working on renewable energy in the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Before that he ran immigration and asylum services in the south-east of England for the UK Border Agency and has been responsible for various aspects of policing policy in the Home Office.

Enjoying cycling and wildlife photography in his spare time, Gareth lives with his husband and two cats in Crystal Palace.

Samantha Reyes Ronso

Trustee

Samantha is the Programme Manager for Shiva Foundation, an impact-driven organisation working with its extensive network to bring people together with the goal of ending modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK.

Samantha’s main responsibilities are focused on the hotel and hospitality sector supporting businesses to address risks of modern slavery, including sexual and labour exploitation. She has a vast experience in Latin America where she worked for 20+ as a strategic consultant for Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability working along with private companies in different sectors across the region, helping them to design and develop their corporate social responsibility programmes and to measure their outcomes and impacts for both, the community and the companies.

Sonali Banerjee

Trustee

Sonali has been a trustee of AFRIL since September 2017.

As a passionate musician and qualified teacher, she has worked in music education for 20 years and is currently Head of Music Planning at Trinity Laban.

Sonali lives locally and enjoys spending time with her family, absorbing as much London culture as possible, cycling and exercise classes.

Sofia Sadiq

Trustee

Divaughn Burnett

Trustee

Margaret Ruth Gravelle

Trustee

Kerry-Ann Francis

Trustee

Kerry-Ann Francis is Managing Director of Numidia Ltd, a business development and career coaching consultancy. She has extensive experience in sales and business development having worked for companies across the commercial and not for profit sectors, including Salesforce.com, IBM, Sedex and the National Deaf Children’s Society.

Meet the Team

Staff

Katie Commons

Director

Kieran Tang-Wright

Education Coordinator

Ed O'Driscoll

Southwark Law Centre Immigration Advice Partnership Solicitor

Shahrazad Magrabi

Advice and Advocacy Officer

Helen Mason

Food Bank Manager

Ruth Michaels

Passion Fruit Class Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Vita Baliaj

Starfruit Class Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Ndaiziyei Murimba

Mango Class Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Melanie Hering

Art Leader - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Olu Mason

Sport Teacher - Rainbow Club Supplementary School

Kate Hashemi

Food Bank Assistant

Trustees

Gareth Redmond-King

Chair of Trustees

Samantha Reyes Ronso

Trustee

Sonali Banerjee

Trustee

Sofia Sadiq

Trustee

Divaughn Burnett

Trustee

Margaret Ruth Gravelle

Trustee

Kerry-Ann Francis

Trustee

Michael Hargadon

Trustee

Alexandra Braun Woodbury

Trustee

Ron Tran

Trustee