Senior Researcher in Gender and Development English Language Interpreter 

Heba was born in Cairo, Egypt. She is a full time researcher and interpreter at media outreach   center,   member   of   Hewar   (Dialogue)   Unit,   Egypt's   Dar   al-Ifta   (Official Muslim Religious House of Issuing Religious Edicts). In July 2018, she obtained her M.A degree in Gender and Development, faculty of Economics   and   Political   Science,   Cairo   University.   Her   thesis   was   on   gender mainstreaming in Muslim Sunni official Institution. She   is   currently   a   Ph.D   researcher   at   Egyptian   American   Institute,   Cambridge Certified. She launched her first “personal” initiative with KAICIID for breaking stereotypes in Egypt and MENA Region regarding women. The initiative titled “Women’s Voices for  Peace”. It   aims   to   achieve   women’s   empowerment   and   inclusion   in   different aspects of life.

Rev Dr.  Mrs. Uzoaku Juliana Williams is a committed member and minister of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria. In November 2022, Dr Uzoaku emerged as the First Female National officer serving currently as the Assistant General Secretary in the Christian Association of Nigeria, the the foremost and highest ecumenical body in Nigeria.

Rev. Dr. Williams has attended and facilitated several workshops/trainings in and outside Nigeria. She is immensely vast in global issues like Women and gender rights, Inter-Faith and Ecumenisms, HIV/AIDS advocacy and counseling, Girl child/ maternal issues. She has steered many positive initiatives on women empowerment across the Nigeria ecumenical networks. Uzoaku has been coordinating the UNICEF Spotlight Initiatives on Ending Violence against Children in Nigeria in collaboration with the Christian Council.

With several trainings and involvement in church and ecumenical relations, she obtained a Post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Ecumenical Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Theology from the Hugh Goldie Theological Institute, an affiliation of Abia State University Uturu. Abia State, Nigeria and currently another master in Women and Gender studies from the University of Jos.  She presently holds various positions within and outside Nigeria.

She is a gifted leader, a worship leader, motivational speaker, marriage counselor, preacher, gender and Child advocate and a great Ecumenist. She is passionate for women, gender and girl child empowerment with deep bias to ecumenism and interfaith relation.

Dr Uzoaku is a mother, Wife, Sister and Daughter

Kenu Agarwal has a Masters in Gandhi and Peace studies. Kenu is a Spiritual and Social worker, dedicatedly working for Interreligious Harmony, Peace, Women Empowerment and Child Development initiatives for more than 20 years. She is a KAICIID 2019 International Fellow, founder of US-based organization Collective Determination and Communication Director at Shankar Vihar Pracheen Hanuman Mandir. In previous years she has worked with many organizations like Ahimsa Vishwa Bharti, Indraprastha Press Club of India, and Communities in Transition.

Heidi is a vocational teacher, RE teacher, a journalist and a Lutheran pastor. Heidi providing training on inter-worldview issues mainly for teachers, people of religious communities and youth. She has more than two decades of experience in organising various interfaith activities at the grass roots in Finland and internationally. She has attended UNAOC high-level Forums four times as a representative of her interfaith activities. Currently Heidi is a KAICIID Fellow and a board member of ENORB (European Network on Religion & Belief) and a committee member of Religions for Peace European Women of Faith Network. She has also served several years as an ambassador of the Parliament of World’s Religions and as a Global Council Trustee of United Religions Initiative.  

Heidi has co-founded and co-ordinated four interfaith URI CCs in Finland in the last 20 years. One of them is a multi-regional NGO called Uskot ilman rajoja ry./Faiths Without Borders. She has edited three books related to interfaith and intercultural dialogue and co- operation. At this moment Heidi works in a project called KUKAKI II:  The Cultural, Worldview and Language Awareness in Basic Education and a project on peace and global citizenship education: they are both carried out co-operatively by the University of Helsinki Centre for Educational Assessment (CEA) and the steering committee of Arto Kallioniemi’s position as UNESCO Chair on Values, Dialogue and Human Rights in Education.