Rewriting the Future Event for Refugee Remote Employment

On June 11, our Career Development Program launched ‘The Aya Project’ in London to an audience of private sector CEOs, executives, humanitarian leaders and interested organizations.

The event kicked off with a Fireside Chat featuring tech leaders Rania Succar, CEO of Intuit MailChimp and Jusoor Co-Founder, and Claire Donald, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Moo, speaking about remote employment, practical steps to champion inclusion and diversity, and the future of AI in the workplace.

During the Fireside Chat, Succar and Donald had an honest discussion about diversity in the workplace with emphasis placed on strengthening decision-making through having a diverse workforce and the need to have diversity at management and decision-making levels. They also discussed the role of different agencies out there that made it easier to find and connect with diverse talent. The audience expressed the need for larger companies to show the way to hire diverse talent and what policies are needed to promote diversity.

Our Expert Panel included: Ameer Jawad, Cofounder and CEO of Talpods; Malvina El-Sayegh, Director of Revenue Enablement at Oyster; Feras Nasr, Innovation Manager at UK Palestinian Tech Hub; and Tiago Rosado, Chief Information and Security Officer of Asite – and was moderated by Jusoor Board of Directors member, Trauma Psychologist, and UN Advisor Dr. Alexandra Chen.

The panel highlighted effective innovations addressing refugee youth unemployment, and discussed fintech solutions and cybersecurity best practices for employers, reminding us that “the biggest thing we need to do is to overcome bias”. Jawad and Elsayegh also discussed their experiences with facilitating employment connections. 

Some challenges were also discussed on the panel such as remote employers not paying freelancers and Nasr urged employers to honor their agreements.

Besides the Fireside Chat and Panel Discussion, our team introduced our unique intervention ‘The Aya Project’ which aims to recruit and remotely connect refugee talent with professionals, companies, and organizations looking to hire top-quality employees who are bilingual, affordable, and tech-savvy. Jusoor will facilitate successful hires by offering comprehensive training for incoming employees as well as guidance for employers on remote management practices. This ensures quality control and fosters successful, mutually beneficial partnerships.

‘The Aya Project’ was designed according to a feasibility study conducted In 2023-2024, ‘Innovation for Inclusion: Remote Work Solutions for Refugee Talent in the Middle East’, which revealed key gaps in the labor market. Among them is the need in the Western labor market for talent in administration, research, and social media digital marketing. Our team shared highlights from the study, which included interviews and focus groups with  20 employers and 100 Syrian refugee youth, during the event. A key factor in pushing forward the project was that 68% of refugees interviewed said that they would prefer to remain with their families and communities to build their careers remotely instead of going abroad. Another essential point was that 83% of interviewees reported experiencing discrimination based on nationality, leading to feelings of rejection and denial of their right to work – making remote work an essential tool to address this.