Nada Abshir, MA
Nada received her master's degree in 2006 in International Affairs from The New School in New York City, with a focus on urban youth in Africa. She has been engaged in development work in the fields of human rights, advocacy, capacity building and community awareness for the past 8 years. Among other experiences, she has managed a Save-the-Children (UK) project focused on child protection in Somalia and trained incoming African Union peacekeepers to prevent potential sexual exploitation and abuse. She has also undertaken regional-level advocacy work with Oxfam GB, developing advocacy strategies for the complex livelihoods crisis facing the Horn and East Africa and for the Somali refugees on the Kenyan border. Subsequent to her work in Africa, Nada undertook a year-long training in Transpersonal Counseling in Australia.
Niru Guroong
With Nepali heritage and coming from Burma, Niru Guroong has been working as a Translator/Interpreter since 2009. She achieved a proficiency level certificate in English and Computer courses at Knowledge Zone Education Center in Mae Sot. Within the Mae Sot migrant community, Niru's work has included advocacy projects for Burmese migrant children, social care activities, and translation for research projects. She began work with BBP in March 2011, providing translation (written and oral) during MHAP's initial training stage. After that, she was taken on full-time to work with BBP's Clinical Team, to interpret psychosocial and mental health trainings, meetings with local partners, and group and individual counselling sessions. As her experience grows, Niru is starting to take the lead on some elements of trainings and projects, such as leading weekly psychosocial play sessions at a community-based safe house for at-risk children.
Whitney Haruf, MA
Whitney has been the Director of Adult Mental Health in Mae Sot, Thailand for the past year. A body-centered psychotherapist from Boulder, Colorado, she received her master's degree from Naropa University in Somatic Counseling Psychology. Previously, Whitney worked in a center for asylum-seeking torture survivors, a domestic violence shelter for women, a number of county jails providing counseling and yoga to incarcerated individuals, and most recently at a psychiatric inpatient facility with Boulder County Mental Health Center working with adults with severe mental illness. This is her third time to Thailand; on her last visit she volunteered with SalusWorld along the border with Shan State, Burma in Northwestern Thailand. Her partnership with Shan Burmese peer support counselors involved visiting 8 Shan migrant communities in the area to provide educational outreach on mental health issues and offer group and individual counseling and psychosocial support.
Derina Johnson, BA
Derina Johnson is a play therapist from Ireland, working in the field since 2006. She holds an honors degree in Psychology from University College Dublin and postgraduate diplomas in both play therapy and child and adult psychotherapy from the Children's Therapy Center. Derina started her own mobile play therapy practice in 2007, having previously worked in the field of social care. Her practice focused on children affected by violence, substance abuse, neglect and other family and societal difficulties in inner-city Dublin and surrounding disadvantaged areas. She has also worked with and supported teenagers, parents, teachers and childcare staff in both individual and group settings. She works in a systemic and child-centered way, striving to do so in partnership with parents, carers and other relevant persons in order to meet the individual needs of the child. Currently, Derina lives in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, developing and supporting community-based child and youth psychosocial services for Burma Border Projects.
Lucinda Lai, BAH
Lucinda graduated with Honors in Human Biology from Stanford University in June 2011. Being raised by a pair of refugees of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia instilled in Lucinda a passion for the health and human rights of refugees all across Southeast Asia. For this reason, she received Stanford's year-long International Public Service Fellowship, founded by the partnership of the Haas Center for Public Service and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, to work for any governmental, inter-governmental, or non-governmental organization in any country of her choice. Lucinda chose a placement with BBP in order to learn about the protracted humanitarian crisis of Burmese refugees from a mental health perspective, as mental health provides unique insights into medicine, community-based healthcare infrastructures, culture, human rights, and politics through the form of human narratives. Lucinda hopes to study medicine upon her return to the US, toward a long career in health and human rights.