Board of Trustees

Every charity needs great trustees. Here are the lovely people who play this important role for us.

 

Carolina Albuerne, Chair

Carolina is an expert practitioner and consultant in the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other vulnerable migrants. She has over seventeen years of front line experience in the refugee and migrant field.Her experience spans from working with newly arrived asylum seekers to supporting those facing destitution and immigration detention in the UK. She has expertise in working with vulnerable populations such as victims of trafficking and torture and is an experienced trainer and facilitator.

She has worked for the Refugee Council, Freedom from Torture, Solace (Surviving Exile and Persecution) and the Poppy Project amongst others. She currently works at Refugee Action as Good Practice and Partnerships Manager leading on the organisation’s capacity building strategy. Carolina has been a Trustee of AVID since 2011. 

Anne Hudson

Anne Hudson has worked in charity organisations and management for over thirty years, particularly in the legal and advice sector. She has been a trustee of Sheffield Law Centre and then employed as the Coordinator, being part of the organisation for fifteen years. Most recently, she was the Development Manager at Kirklees Law Centre. She has also been a trustee of the Law Centres Network and their Treasurer. 

Anne began her life in charity work by volunteering, and later becoming a trustee, of her local independent advice centre. She was part of the advice sector in Sheffield for over twenty years in a variety of roles both paid and unpaid, and was heavily involved in the delivery of Legal Aid by third-sector organisations in the city. She chaired the organisation in Sheffield which eventually merged eleven advice agencies, including the law centre, into one body.  

Anne’s time in charities has given her a passionate belief in social justice and she feels that working with AVID will enable the organisation to provide more support to those who need it in a difficult political climate. Having recently taken (early) retirement she was looking for a role where she could continue to make a difference and believes that AVID and its members are doing important and valuable work. 

Harbi Jama

Harbi joined the AVID Board of Trustees in November 2022. Harbi is enthusiastic about organisational growth, people, and supporting senior leaders by creating diverse income streams. Harbi is the Head of Development at The London Community Foundation; through good philanthropy and partnerships, he uses his knowledge and expertise to convene donors to invest in charitable organisations working to overcome the issues affecting London

Harbi joined us to bring his fundraising expertise to the board, and his lived experience as his family came to the UK as refugees from Somalia. Harbi has also worked in the refugee sector, working for charities like Refugee Action, leading the development and strategic planning of their corporate income and partnerships. Harbi is passionate about having a strong and diverse civil society that tackles disadvantages, and we can’t do this if we exclude people in immigration detention.  

 

Adam Spray

Adam Spray read Geography at the University of Leeds. He later converted to law and was awarded a distinction in the Legal Practice Course at BPP University, London.

He joined Wilsons Solicitors in 2013 initially as a caseworker in the immigration department. He then undertook a training contract and worked in the immigration, family, and criminal departments. He qualified as a solicitor in 2016 and decided to specialise in immigration law. In late 2018 he left Wilson to work as a legal manager for the charity Bail for Immigration Detention (BID).

In 2022 Adam returned to work at Wilsons as an Associate Solicitor in the immigration department.Adam specialises in all aspects of immigration law with a particular interest in personal immigration and asylum. Adam has extensive voluntary experience having given time to the charities Micro-RainbowBody and Soul and The South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre.

 

Hannah Cooper

Hannah joined the AVID Board of Trustees in June 2023. She has worked for the past decade in policy, advocacy and research roles where she has focused on strategically influencing policies at national, regional and global levels so that they work better for people on the move and people caught up in humanitarian crises. This has included positions with Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Refugee Action. Hannah currently works with the International Detention Coalition, managing their Europe regional programme and coordinating the European Alternatives to Detention Network.

Hannah holds a Master’s degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a postgraduate qualification in Social Research from Birkbeck College, University of London. She has spent time working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Japan, Yemen, the Central African Republic, Belgium and the UK.

Basma El Doukhi

Basma El Doukhi is a Palestinian human rights activist, Global Challenges Doctoral Scholar in Migration studies and an associate lecturer at the University of Kent. Basma has a master's in Development and Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes University. She has been active in humanitarian and development work with displaced people for the past fourteen years, covering the diverse scope of sectors like community outreach and mobilisation, advocacy, durable solutions, protection and many others with UNHCR, UNRWA and many international NGOs in MENA. She is dedicated and passionate about refugee protection, humanitarian action, advocacy, campaigning, and community outreach and development. She also currently participates as an advisory group member for Migration Exchange.