Meet our 2025 Refugee Week Ambassadors
Posted by Jeremy Ullmann on June 17, 2025IMIX met our Refugee Week Ambassadors in person for the first time on the sixth floor of the Royal Festival Hall in London in April. We spent two full days getting to know each other with spectacular views of the capital’s iconic skyline centre as our backdrop.
Each year for Refugee Week, we at IMIX partner with Counterpoints Arts to appoint, mentor and support Ambassadors to help them get their story heard in the UK media. These are individuals who have powerful, important stories that need to be heard across the country. Their stories are reminders of the resilience of the human spirit, the fortune and misfortune of circumstance, and the real experience beyond the statistics and numbers we so often consume on immigration.
This residential began with the staff and Ambassadors getting to know each other and learning more about all our individual stories, why we’re here and what we want to achieve together. Over the two days, along with team-building exercises, we heard from each of the Ambassadors who eloquently shared their experiences and their passions to us.
We are in awe of all of them, not simply due to their strength and resilience, but also their compassion for others and the skill with which they tell their story. They are all from different backgrounds, speak different languages, have faced different struggles, but all find common ground in a sense of purpose – to change the narrative we have in this country about others such as them.
Meet our 2025 cohort of Ambassadors:
MoYah
MoYah is an Afro-fusion rapper, artistic activist, and educator dedicated to using music as a tool for community empowerment, social justice, youth engagement, and environmentalism. Born in Mozambique during the civil war and later seeking refuge in Portugal, he found solace in hip-hop and his parents’ diverse musical influences. He now lives in the UK and performs his music across the world, addressing themes of identity, sustainability, and empowerment.
Awssan Kamal Deen
Awssan arrived in the UK as a refugee from his home country of Yemen, aged just nine, fleeing the war that had broken out there. Inspired by his and his family’s experience as well as the Arab Spring, he left his job to begin a humanitarian career, supporting those affected across Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Syria. At age 29 he had already raised his first million in aid. He now works at Oxfam.
‘I’m feeling so proud and honoured to be part of an incredible group of artists, storytellers, sportswomen and change-makers.’
Refugee artists and ambassadors came together to build powerful mood boards that tell stories of home, belonging, resistance, and dreams for the future.
Through images, poetry, calligraphy, and collage, we challenge the way refugee voices are usually portrayed: not as victims, but as visionaries. You’ll see what investment in refugee futures really looks like. Not just in funding, but in trust, visibility, joy, and collective power.’ – Awssan Kamal Deen
Amanda Kamanda
Amanda was born in Uganda, which she left for the UK to study. Upon arriving, she was able to express her gender identity free from the persecution she would have faced in Uganda, and entered into her first beauty pageant. She is a passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and conversations around intersectional oppression.
Fatemah Habib
Fatemah worked with the British Council in Afghanistan until the collapse of the country under Taliban rule in 2021, when she was offered to relocate to the UK with her husband and her children. In the UK, she achieved an MBA from Exeter University, focusing on asylum seekers’ rights and women and children’s issues within the UK. She is now a community organiser and is passionate about building bridges between communities.
Amon Agnès Tanoh
Grandma Agnes (as she likes to be called) fled the Ivory Coast due to the outbreak of the civil war. When she arrived in the UK she was sent to a detention centre without explanation, and, upon being released, had to wait six years until she secured her right to remain. She is a tireless advocate to end detention and to educate others on the experiences of refugees. She is now a staff member for Women for Refugee Women.
Dorsa Yavari
Dorsa is an Olympian, representing the Refugee Team in badminton at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She was introduced to badminton by her father when she was just nine years old. Born in Iran, she fled the country when she was 15 with her mother, moving to Turkey, Germany, Belgium and France before arriving in the UK in 2019. As well as continuously training for the next Olympics, she also studies sports and exercise science at Middlesex University.
Douna Haj Ahmed.
Douna is a storyteller, journalist and human rights activist from Syria. She grew up advocating for women’s rights, and eventually came to the UK on a Chevening Scholarship. She is now a dedicated campaigner for amplifying displaced voices. From drafting employment and education guidance to connecting refugees with healthcare, her work is rooted in empowerment and empathy. Through her writing, including Between Two Worlds: A Tale of a Syrian Odyssey, she challenges stereotypes and highlights refugee resilience. These are her reflections on the experience of being a Refugee Week Ambassador.
‘Throughout the training, I learnt from the brilliant sessions and the extraordinary people around me. I was deeply moved by stories of courage, resilience, and unwavering hope — a reminder that even when the world turns its back, the human spirit stands taller.
When asked, “What puts fire in your belly?”, I realised it is the simple, stubborn truth:
I come from…
the in-between — not war, not peace.
From the scent of jasmine rising through broken streets.
From lullabies sung over sirens,
and tea that tastes like home and survival.
I come from mothers who make miracles out of nothing,
fathers who build futures from rubble,
and people who name their children after hope.
I carry…
names I refuse to forget,
stories too heavy for one heart — but I carry them anyway.
I carry the rhythm of two languages dancing in my mouth.
I carry silence turned into strength,
grief turned into growth.
I carry every “you don’t belong here.”
and turn it into a map where I do.
I carry love — loud, stubborn, and borderless.
I carry freedom not as a word,
but as a reason to keep going.
In a world that often insists on highlighting our differences, this experience reaffirmed the shared values that bind us — compassion, hope, and the relentless belief in a better future for all.
I am incredibly proud to have been selected as a Refugee Ambassador 2025. I carry this responsibility with deep pride, gratitude, and a renewed commitment to honour the legacy I represent and to champion our shared humanity.’ – Douna Haj Ahmed
We are delighted to support these remarkable Ambassadors in amplifing their stories this Refugee Week.
If you would like to book one of the Ambassadors to speak at an event or feature in your media outlet please get in touch at media@imix.org.uk
