Alhag Ali, known as Ali, is from Sudan. He has been living in Potsdam, a city close to Berlin, since 2018. He is deeply interested in political and economical issues at the international level. He finished a master in Industrial Economics in 2022. Ali has volunteered in various organisations in Berlin and Potsdam.

Ali met Give Something Back to Berlin through the Open Language Café project, namely the German and English-speaking groups. Since 2020, he has been an active member of the Open Kitchen project and cooks delicious recipes from all over the world every week.

Has over 10 years of NGO experience from Sweden, where Annamaria was also Director at SECO, one of the biggest Swedish NGOs. Studied German literature at the Humboldt Universität Berlin and has a BA in Political/Philosophy and Gender Studies from Uppsala University. Attended to courses in Middle Eastern and Holocaust Studies. Wrote her final thesis on political action in Hannah Arendt’s ”The Human Condition” and published her first book in 2014.  She developed the concept of GSBTB in May 2012.

At GSBTB, Annamaria is responsible for relationship management and public speaking.

Ben Osborn is a writer, songwriter, composer and sound designer from Oxford, UK, now based in Berlin, Germany. Coming from a poetic folk song tradition, his work draws also from electronica and classical music to create a space in which highly personal and deeply political stories can be told. He regularly collaborates with visual artists, dancers, theatre companies, filmmakers, podcasters, musicians and composers and has created works with institutions such as the Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic, National Theatre, National Portrait Gallery (UK), Folkteatern (Sweden), Literaturhaus Berlin, Kunsthaus Dortmund (Germany), Festival Lyric de Aix-En-Provence (France) and Teatro Orteuv (Mexico) among others, and has won several awards for his soundtracks, sound designs and songs. He gives writing and composition workshops in a variety of cultural and education institutions and is a visiting lecturer at Mountview University (UK).

Since 2017, Ben has been one of the directors of Give Something Back to Berlin’s Open Music Lab: an activist-led musical cooperative and collaborative learning space for refugees, migrants and others from marginalised communities. He previously worked for the HOPE not hate anti-racism campaign and the UCU trade union.

Over the past ten years, Böbe worked for media and brands, contributed to magazines, news sites and corporate publications, and wrote stories in English, Spanish, German, and Hungarian. She has an MA in Communications and Cultural Studies, studied in Hungary, Spain and Argentina, and wrote her theses about the immigration museums of Barcelona and Buenos Aires and how Latin American migrants use the internet in their quest for a new home. She is a magazine enthusiast.

At Give Something Back to Berlin, Böbe is part of the Communications and Partnerships team.

After moving to Berlin in 2019, Chris studied at the Alice-Salomon Hochschule and holds an MA in Social Work as a Human Rights Profession. Before he moved to Germany, Chris has worked with youth through athletics and music. He has also performed as a bass player, recorded, composed, and toured with several different bands in the United States and abroad. Aside from performing as a musician, Chris has an interest in helping children and at-risk youth learn to cope with stress and to be successful in their lives through healthy, self-sustaining strategies with community-oriented support systems.

Chris currently volunteers with the GSBTB Open Music School as a bass instructor. Not only does he work for a youth centre in Kreuzburg, Chris also works with teenagers in Brandenburg as a pedagogical assistant for the Institut für Neue Soziale Plastik (Institute for New Social Plastic) fighting against Anti-Semitism.

Having studied Business Informatics back in Syria, he is now enrolled in a Master’s program, studying Information Systems Management at TU Berlin. Alongside this, he also works as a research assistant in the Weizenbaum Institute.

He has lived in Refugio since it was founded in 2015, and actively volunteers his time and efforts in different facets of the project. He also resides as an advisory board member of Give Something Back to Berlin, and is a member of the Ambassadors program of the ReDi School of Digital Integration.

Fayaz was born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan, and attended school in Tehran, Iran. He came to Germany in 2015 and joined Give Something Back to Berlin’s Open Language Café program in English to improve his language skills, meet new people and learn more about different cultures.

Since 2015, he has finished high school, obtained a vocational diploma and did a traineeship as an electronics engineer. He starts his bachelor studies in electrical engineering in the winter semester of 2022.

His hobbies are spending time with family and friends and learning new things.

She studied at The University of Edinburgh and has a Master of Arts in Psychology. She has always had a keen interest in social issues and people’s wellbeing. Over the last decade she has been finding ways to support people through difficulties, either by volunteering at refugee centers or by offering assistance to children with disabilities. With extensive experience in the creative industry, from art and design to music, she’s adopted a keen interest in using creative means to build a supportive network where one feels safe and has a sense of care from people around.

Gaby is the co-founder and co-manager of the Open Music Lab. She hopes to offer a hub for music lovers to feel welcomed and help encourage each to reach their full potential.

Lisa is from the beautiful islands of Cape Verde. She grew up in the eternal city of Rome in Italy, where she studied architecture. She arrived to Frankfurt am Main in 2016 to finish another bachelor’s degree in Visual Communications and learn German.

Lisa is a brand designer with a focus on UI & UX design. She has worked as an art director, photographer, and UX Designer for Italian and German companies. She is passionate about arts, photography, and design and she believes in the magic that creativity brings to this world. She regularly contributes to improving GSBTB’s visual communications and works as a volunteer to design public relations materials.

Yasmeen is from the beautiful city of Basra in Iraq. He has been living in Germany for more than 6 years. She continues her studies to become a child educator which allowed her to go on an internship at Berlin Metropolitan School for the whole year and she loved it!

Yasmeen is passionate about art, basketball and wandering. She joined GSBTB in 2017 as a volunteer interpreter from Arabic into English during drawing activities. Since then she has been part of the Open Hearts Space project and draws (and interprets) for Open Art Space on Tuesdays 🙂

Wilma has studied cooking in Sweden for 3 years. Afterwards, she worked in Spain and in the US where she learned about food and culture. She moved to Berlin in 2019 to explore the diversity of cultures and communities present in the city. She got in touch with the Open Kitchen shortly after her arrival and became a regular participant and volunteer.

Not only does she follow sustainable and ethical standards in her cooking but also in her choice of everyday products.