Team

Sheniz Tan, CEO

Sheniz Tan is Asfar’s CEO and Director.

Sheniz is responsible for all of Asfar's international programmes, strategy and overall organisational development.

Sheniz holds an MA in Reconciliation and Peacebuilding from the University of Winchester, has a BA (Hons) in Politics and History of the Middle East with Turkish from the University of Durham and is a Level 7 qualified Strategic Manager and current Chartered Fellow of the UK Chartered Management Institute.

Sheniz has worked in the International Development, Peacebuilding, Education, NGO & Charities, Youth, Welfare to Work, Political & Social Entrepreneurship sectors since 2007, for a variety of different organisations over the past 16 years, including: the British Youth Council; House of Commons; Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq; Liberal Democrats Party; yesMinister; Serco; Westminster Forum Projects; and LITC.

From 2015 to 2018, alongside her role at Asfar, Sheniz acted as a Project Development Consultant at Rinova, responsible for monitoring its EU portfolio (23+ large scale EU programmes) and project managed and supported a cross ranges of programmes including: Erasmus+; EU Justice; Interreg; Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programmes.

Since 2018, Sheniz has focused strictly on Asfar and its partnership network, developing a series of new dynamic learning, employment, skills and social entrepreneurship programmes, including RESOLVE, a reconciliation for development learning programme, the RESOLVE: Network and Social Entrepreneurship work.

Additionally, Sheniz is an Aim Texas World Bank consultant to the Republic of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population acting as the Leader for International Experts Team for its' flagship Employment Support Programme, providing specialist and strategic advice.

Publications, Lectures, Podcasts & Research

2018-2023

Strategic partnerships intellectual output contributions and wider international development delivery outcomes

Learning Abroad to do Better at Home on Gender Equality programme

Young Kreativ Social Enterprises

Talking Peace, Exploring Conflict, University of Winchester.

Erasmus+ REVaLUE: Refugees Empowerment through VET in an inclusive Europe.

 

2010-2017

House of Lords' International Relations Committee' expert contributor - the Middle East: Time for New Realism report, 2017.

A profile of child marriage in the Caucasus, Asfar e-Journal, December 2017.

Erasmus+ European Partnership for Apprenticeships project.

Erasmus+ Interculturality Mobility

Erasmus+ Igma-Femina, 2017

Erasmus+ Euro-IVET: Enhancing the quality of initial vocational and education training for young people in urban and multicultural settings.

Caravans, Yörük and the Balkan Mountains article in the Asfar e-Journal, 2013.

Sheniz has published several articles on the Yörük, tribal communities in Anatolia, Turkey including for the British Association of Turkish Area Studies (from Middlesbrough to the Yayla), and a lectures, including for the Turkish-Anglo Society (16th February 2010 lecture).

Emina Hasanagic, International Project Manager

Emina Hasanagić, is Asfar's International Project Manager and is responsible for co-ordinating all key international and Erasmus+/European Solidarity Corps RESOLVE programmes. Emina has been involved with Asfar since 2017/2018, when the RESOLVE concept began to be introduced to international partners, while working with Asfar's Bosnian partner and organised the first Erasmus+ youth exchange under RESOLVE: East in November 2018.

Emina continued her involvement with RESOLVE, by acting as the Bosnian Team Leader for youth exchanges organised in Tbilisi and London and eventually joining the team in 2019.

Emina obtained a MA in Management and Organisation from the University of Sarajevo in 2014; she is also an alumni of the Young Women's Peace Academy. From 2014, Emina has been active in the NGO sector as a Administrative Department Manager and Erasmus+ Coordinator for the Bosnian Foundation Krila nade in Sarajevo. Emina participated in different initiatives including IPA, Erasmus+ projects, European Solidarity Corps etc. Emina has diverse experience in administrative and financial management of projects, monitoring of project implementation, partnership management, and also in volunteer management, diversity, peacebuilding and reconciliation.

Emina is the author of the Buildpeace Toolkit for Educators, co-author of the Mapping report about Formal, Non-formal education and Online learning in Peace-building and supported the creation of the Buildpeace Handbook for Learners and Policy recommendations. She contributed to the “Report on violence against children (2018) Monitoring results of non-governmental organisations on the state of violence against children and local level community resources in BiH” by Zdravo da ste and UNICEF;  The “Volunteering in countries of the Western Balkans: Guidelines for obtaining residence permits for volunteers within Erasmus+: Youth in Action and European Solidarity Corps” by SALTO and Recommendations for Erasmus+ for Western Balkan Countries by Environment Engineering group in 2019.

Special focus of her work is in providing opportunities for young people to engage in activities that build mutual understanding and reconciliation in the civic, social, educational, cultural and sports domain. Emina was member of the working group of the Peacebuilding Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2 years where she engaged in preparations of numerous activities (e.g. Weeks of Building Peace, Week of Human Rights, Week of Building Peace, Solidarity and Women Rights).  Emina is also one of the founders of the Network of ESC accredited organisations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia for over 3 years.

 

Steven Aiello, Project Officer & Dialogue Expert

Steven Aiello is Asfar's Project Officer & Dialogue Expert focusing on our International Dialogue programmes including Erasmus+ RESOLVE: New Youth Order and our wider strategic partnerships.
Steven is also an experienced NGO strategic leader and founded Debate for Peace 6 years ago to connect and empower young Jewish and Palestinian leaders in Israel. He has a BA in Economics (NYU), MA in Diplomacy and Conflict Studies (IDC), and an MA in Islamic Studies (Tel Aviv University). He has been involved in Jewish-Arab Model United Nations work in Israel since 2011.
Steven is Jewish and Italian-American, from New York, currently living in Tel Aviv. He has run dozens of conferences and more than 15 international youth delegations. More information about Steven's wider work visit: Debateforpeace.org

Bruno Pizzini, Trainer

Bruno Pizzini is one of Asfar's Trainers/Facilitators, specialising in social development, skills programmes design and gender equality.

Bruno is an experienced youth trainer, facilitator, coach and mentor.  Bruno is also an international youth worker with over 10 years, with a specialism in informal and non-formal youth work methods. Bruno uses visual interactive facilitation styles to deliver a wide range of engaging training programmes.

Bruno started his career as a Youth in Action programme manager in 2001, moving on to become a group leader at the International Youth Exchange office, Turin City Council. Bruno was also Head of International Activities at Levitazione.

As well as delivering training programmes for youth, Bruno is also experienced in gender equality facilitation, is a qualified Training of Trainers and a European Solidarity Corps trainer for Salto, Hungary. Since March 2020 he has been a member of Guild International Youth Worker Trainers.