About :: Hudara

Learn Who We Are

Discover what we stand for
and meet the people behind the organisation

Vision & Mission

We believe that the foundation for a peaceful and just future is to build actions on equal partnerships. This includes respect for diverse ways of life and appreciation of manifold positive social and cultural expressions, practices and solutions globally.

Our Vision

We strive for a world in which people experience good mental wellbeing, live in peaceful communities and in balance with the natural environment.

Our Mission

We support communities in reaching a sustainable and peaceful way of functioning through mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), social cohesion (SC) and adaptation to climate change (ACC).

Our work feeds into the achievement of the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations. They aim to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change by 2030.

We consider development as a holistic process and our work links to all 17 goals. Our core focus and area of expertise is Good Health and Well-being (3), Climate Action (13) and Peace, Justice and strong Institutions (16). Our actions further target No Poverty (1), Gender Equality (5), Affordable and Clean Energy (7) and Sustainable Cities and Communities (11).

The Team

We have come together with our diverse backgrounds and interests, inspired by a shared vision of a sustainable and just global community. We are engaged in social change initiatives, community work and research. Our goal is to broaden debates and actions, strengthen horizontal lines of communication, and foster genuine collaboration across all our projects.

From the left: Olena, Boris, Nataliia, Tim, Lena, Irene, Pia, Feride, Kristina, Clara. Anne and Ahmed are missing on the picture.

Dr. Lena Schmid

Managing Director

Lena is a trained psychologist and focuses on developing, implementing, and researching measures to promote mental health and social cohesion and connection interventions applying community-based approaches. She has long-standing professional experience in the humanitarian field, clinical and social practice, as well as research in different places in West Asia, North and Central Africa, and Germany. As Managing Director, she is responsible for representation, vision and strategy, organisational management, program design, and fundraising.

Prof. Dr. Boris Heinz

Head of Programme

Boris advocates an integrated approach that links community action with policy, while addressing power and inequality. With an academic background in development economics and environmental engineering and two decades of experience at the United Nations and research institutions, he emphasizes climate and energy action as a social as well as technological process. At Hudara, he is in charge of fundraising, project development and program delivery. He is a Professor at Technische Universität Berlin and a founding member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association.

Tim Britton

Research Associate

Tim contributes to Hudara’s energy access initiatives. His research focuses on participatory, locally grounded, and interdisciplinary approaches to improving access to energy in remote and displacement contexts. He works with communities to understand their energy needs and how these relate to wellbeing, supporting a transition toward more sustainable and equitable energy systems. He links on-the-ground research with methodological development. Before beginning his academic career, he completed a Master’s degree in Renewable Energy Systems.

Reida Dawa

Project Manager

Reida's professional efforts center on supporting vulnerable populations such as refugees and displaced persons. She works as a Project Manager within the SUNNY Project, performing project-related tasks and implementation. Her work is intrinsically locally grounded and informed by her academic training in social care. She is currently pursuing a Master's in Social Work. Outside of these roles, she serves as the Chairlady of the South Sudan Community in Bolton, UK, where she has developed strong leadership, problem-solving, and management skills.

Anne van Leeuwen

Operations Coordinator

Anne has an academic background in social sciences and supports Hudara in an administrative and coordinating role, smooth operations across projects and teams. She has a similar role in the Department of Community Energy and Adaptation to Climate Change at the Technical University of Berlin. Before joining Hudara, Anne worked as an administrator at an academic institute in Cairo, Egypt, where she gained valuable experience in the field of administration in international environments.

Dr. Feride Nur Haskaraca Kizilay

Research Associate

Feride holds a Master’s degree in Developmental Psychology and a PhD in Behavior & Cognition. She supports Hudara’s mental health and psychosocial support projects with a focus on immigrants and refugees, drawing on both academic expertise and lived experience to strengthen community-based, culturally sensitive interventions. She previously contributed to the GEZUMI project as the project manager, which aimed to create safe spaces for people with migration backgrounds in Germany.

Federica Longi

Research Associate

Federica’s work examines how energy transitions unfold in context, shaped by local histories, cultural practices, and socio-economic conditions. Her research explores participatory, community-based approaches to improving energy access, particularly through Local Energy Communities. She contributes to Hudara’s initiatives through an ecological lens linking institutional frameworks, environmental challenges, and everyday social dynamics to governance and democracy, enabling more equitable and sustainable energy access, especially in vulnerable and resource-poor contexts.