Our advisory panel
Dr Bernard Koomson
Bernard Koomson is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick, UK. He is a Child and Youth studies expert, focusing on issues of economic migration, human trafficking, human rights and digital health. His current research explores the future of human rights and youth participation in the digital age, through transnational collaborative approaches with researchers and civil society groups. He is particularly interested in how power, social and economic inequalities shape children and youth’s inequality and the extent to which these inequalities affect their fundamental human rights, development and wellbeing.
Through a rights-based epistemological lens, he employs a participatory approach to the study of communities and grassroot organizations that promote human rights initiatives. As a development sociologist, he employs a multiplicity of techniques within a largely qualitative tradition to the study of his research interests. His research interests include youth culture and human rights, politics of child and youth economic migration, NGOs and community development, and emerging digital communities.
Marriam Mwiza
Marriam Mwiza is a Ugandan anti-human trafficking activist and founder of Overseas Workers Voices Uganda (OWVU), which advocates for the rights and protection of migrant workers, particularly Ugandan domestic workers in the Middle East.
Marriam’s activism began in 2017 after successfully securing the release and repatriation of a Ugandan woman held against her will in Jordan, an experience that sparked the creation of OWVU. Her advocacy contributed to Uganda’s first-ever conviction of a trafficker in 2019. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to combat trafficking, support victims, and hold exploitative labour systems to account.
In 2022, Marriam was named an Obama Foundation Leaders Africa Fellow. She was featured in the 2025 BBC documentary Death in Dubai, which exposed the abuse of Ugandan women in the Gulf. Known for her fearless approach, she challenges weak regulation of labour export companies and presses for timely justice for trafficking victims.
As an advisor to Hope Education Project, Marriam brings frontline experience, proven advocacy, and passionate commitment to protecting vulnerable communities from exploitation.
Dr Thomas Yeboah
Dr Thomas Yeboah is a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. With a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, he brings nearly a decade of experience in rural development, migration, and gender dynamics. His research examines children’s labour migration, exploring the distinction between benign and exploitative work, and investigating young people’s experiences navigating rural and urban economies.
Dr Yeboah previously served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations, contributing to the EPSRC-funded HEED project on community resilience among displaced populations. He has consulted for various development organizations and recently led research on the ECOWAS free movement protocol and youth engagement in commercialized rural economies across Africa. Most recently, Dr Yeboah collaborated with University of Ghana researchers on a project examining trafficking in persons into, within, and out of Ghana, investigating causal factors, incidence, and the impact of COVID-19 on trafficking.
Tina Salvage
Tina Salvage has spent years applying corporate-grade data expertise to one of the world’s most pressing human rights challenges. As the former Head of Data and AI at STOP THE TRAFFIK, a UK-based global anti-trafficking charity, she led the improvements to the Traffik Analysis Hub, the world’s largest human trafficking intelligence database containing over 60,000 trafficking reports and more than 7 million data points. Launched in Washington D.C. in 2019 through partnerships with IBM and Clifford Chance, the Hub employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify trafficking patterns and hotspots that humans alone might miss. More than 200 organizations worldwide now use this platform to inform their anti-trafficking efforts, transforming survivor stories into actionable intelligence that protects vulnerable people.
Salvage brings over three decades of financial services experience from her role at HSBC, and was formerly Lead Data Governance Manager at Bupa Global. This corporate expertise in financial crime compliance and anti-money laundering directly translates to understanding the financial flows that enable trafficking networks. The teams work with Merkle to develop the Human Trafficking Scenario Tool, which uses machine learning to predict trafficking outcomes and enable hyper-targeted prevention campaigns, earned the Greater Good Award in 2023. A regular contributor to CDO Magazine on data governance and ethics, Salvage has demonstrated how the same analytical tools used to detect financial crime can be repurposed to identify exploitation patterns, creating infrastructure that will continue protecting vulnerable communities long after any single campaign ends.
Ophelia Allotey
Ophelia Allotey is a dedicated advocate for gender and menstrual equity and sexual and reproductive health (SRH), focused on improving access to menstrual products and reproductive health education for marginalized communities.
She provides free community paralegal services to girls and women facing gender-based violence, helping them access medical care, psychosocial support, and legal aid while preserving trusted relationships and family values. Ophelia has distributed over 500 menstrual products and reached more than 1,000 young people with comprehensive SRHR information.
A strong advocate for policy change, she campaigns for removing taxes on sanitary pads and including menstrual products in universal healthcare coverage. Through her work, Ophelia challenges menstruation stigma and empowers young people to take control of their sexual and reproductive health.
Ophelia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from the African University College of Communications and has completed programs in advocacy, media relations, and gender studies.
Sara Pownall
With nearly three decades of experience in migration and a sharp focus on human trafficking, Sara Pownall’s career has been shaped by over 20 years working across Africa. Her early role with the UK government disrupting illegal travel and forged documents brought her face-to-face with human trafficking at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, at a time when the issue was not yet globally recognized. Living in West Africa has deepened her understanding of migration drivers and the critical shortage of reliable information for those considering migration, despite known risks of labor exploitation and trafficking.
Since transitioning from government work, Sara has collaborated with the United Nations, specifically the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), advising on project design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of anti-trafficking initiatives. This experience has equipped her with a comprehensive understanding of the migration landscape, enabling her to effectively communicate the complexities of human trafficking to potential migrants and stakeholders, fostering impactful collaborations in the global fight against trafficking.
Zulfina Khudoyorova - Youth Engagement Advisor
Zulfina Khudoyorova is a high school sophomore and an aspiring human rights lawyer. Her commitment to anti-trafficking and migration justice began after watching Death in Dubai, a BBC documentary exposing the lives of trafficking victims living just a short walk from her home. Moved to act, she reached out to Ugandan activist Marriam Mwiza — a step that marked the beginning of her advocacy journey. Originally from Uzbekistan, Zulfina currently volunteers with the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights and brings a youth-led, international perspective to the fight against human trafficking.