Natalie Adakh
Natalie Adakh studied Translation Studies with a focus on English at the University of Leipzig. She started working for AFGiD e.V. immediately after graduating. As the daughter of an Afghan father and a German mother, she has been interested in the visibility and empowerment of the Afghan diaspora in Germany and the support of migrant communities in general since her teenage years. As a result, she completed a voluntary social year in a refugee hostel before starting university. After the Taliban came to power in the summer of 2001, she became involved in various activities to support vulnerable Afghans. She wrote her Master’s thesis on ‚Language proficiency and identity in the Afghan diaspora in Germany‘.
Masoma Farahmand
Masoma Farahmand was born in Daykundi, Afghanistan. In 2016, she successfully completed her bachelor’s degree in history at Shaheed Rabbani Education University. She lives in Germany since 2019. In February 2022, she joined the Afghanistan Forum team in Germany and supports the association in the HamWatan project.
Dr Daniel Grabić
Dr Daniel Grabić studied international information management at the University of Hildesheim, graduating in 2004. In his master’s thesis, he dealt with identity politics discourses in the context of the independence of the youngest European state, Montenegro (independence in 2006). From 2006 to 2010, he completed his PhD at the University of Leipzig as a doctoral fellow of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLLF). Since then, he has been manager to the musician and artist, Carolina Eyck. Between 2017 and 2022, he also worked as project manager and CMO for the Leipzig-based company Dr. Dobler-Optimierung (DDO). Since 2023, he has been working as an administrative project coordinator at the Centre for Development Communication EC4SC at the Institute for Communication Studies at the University of Leipzig.
Dr Kefajat Hamidi
Dr. Kefajat Hamidi is a communication scientist who teaches and researches at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at the University of Leipzig. From 2008 to 2013, he did his doctorate at the University of Leipzig on the topic of „Journalism in fragile states: the case study of Afghanistan“. From 2010 to 2013, he was a doctoral fellow of The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF). Since 2019, he has headed the Research Centre Development Communication – Communication for Social Change at the University of Leipzig. He is also a board member of the Association of Afghan Organisations in Germany (VAFO) and is the initiator of the platform mikopa (People and Institutions for Communication and Participation).
Asefa Khaleqi
Asefa Khaleqi was born in Wardak, Afghanistan. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Policy and Planning from Kabul University. She lives in Germany since 2019. She works as a site coordinator for the HamWatan project.
Abumoslem Khorasani
Abu Khurasani was born on July 27, 1995 in Afghanistan. In 2016, he graduated from Minhaj Siraj High School in Sar-e-Pul. In 2019, he received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Herat University. For the past five years, Khurasani has worked with newspapers such as Sobh Kabul, Neshaneh News Agency, Rasad News Agency, Hasht Subh Newspaper and Daily Etilaatroz.
He also teaches at the Faculty of Journalism at Rena University. He has written extensively on extremism, terrorism, history and sociology, publishing more than 500 reports and articles. His book Afghanistan’s National Security Pathology with Emphasis on Internal Factors was scheduled to be published in September 2021, but the fall of Afghanistan’s government stopped it.