Chief Executive Officer

Razia has been with KRAN since July 2016. She has more than 25 years’ experience of working in senior management in the third sector in London and Kent. She has been on boards and forums for national and local government and is currently on the Refugee Action Insights Hub Advisory Group.

Razia is of mixed heritage (Irish and Bengali) and holds a PhD in International Relations on Critical Social Moments. She has held several trustee roles for women's charities. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of a Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust and was previously a volunteer grants panel member for Children in Need.

razia@kran.org.uk

07709 246325

Senior Manager: Learning for Life

Nigel joined KRAN in February 2024. He worked for 24 years in primary education, starting as a class teacher and then becoming a head teacher at schools in Folkestone and Margate. He chairs a community group in Hawkinge which puts on events for local residents, and is a finance trustee for IncludesUs2 (a charity that supports families with children with additional needs).

Senior Manager: Advocacy and Support

Monitoring and Finance Officer

Suzi has been working for KRAN since 2017. She has a background in small business management and accounting. Suzi oversees the finances and budgets at KRAN and supports the monitoring of Learning for Life projects for reporting purposes.

suzi@kran.org.uk

Senior Operations Administrator

Louise joined KRAN in February 2024. She has a wide range of administrative experience and spent the last 15 years working in Quality Assurance in the education sector. She is looking forward to putting her experience to good use to help develop and co-ordinate KRAN’s administrative processes. As often the first point of contact, Louise looks forward to welcoming you to the Canterbury hub.

Evidence and Impact Coordinator

Henna joined KRAN in 2022 and has worked for various non-profit organisations in the UK (and beyond), with a focus on disaster relief, gender-based violence, racial equality and migrant support. She has a background in developing data collection systems and monitoring and evaluation practices. Based on her mother’s experience of settling in the UK as a young refugee, she wishes more places like KRAN existed.

Communications Coordinator

Sarah joined KRAN in March 2023. She worked for many years in local journalism (from Trainee Reporter to Acting Editor), before moving into PR. She was Press Officer and then Communications Manager at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, for 16 years, and also looked after access (proudest moment: introducing Relaxed Performances). Sarah then held various temporary positions and volunteered with several charities before joining the comms team at Folkestone & Hythe District Council, and finally… KRAN!

media@kran.org.uk

Media Ambassador

Rishan was one of the first Youth Ambassadors at KRAN. Originally Eritrean, she has been a KRAN service user and then employee for more than four years. Rishan is in her final year of a nursing degree.

Media Ambassador

Roya came to the UK from Afghanistan in 2007 as a child refugee aged two with her parents. Since then, Roya and her family have received support from KRAN and it is because of this, that she wants to work with others from similar backgrounds to help them to settle into the UK. Roya - who joined KRAN in February 2024 - is passionate about politics, economics and media (and her forthcoming university degree will reflect this) and hopes to contribute to improving the media narrative around refugees and asylum seekers through her role as a KRAN Media Ambassador.

Community and Corporate Fundraiser

Teachers:
Kate, Kathy, Emily

Teaching Assistant:
Bushra, Miranda

Teachers:

Liz, Andy

Teaching Assistant:
Sandra

Complex Caseworker

Paul has been with KRAN since February 2019. He has had a varied career: after graduating, he lived and worked in the Middle East as a teacher and a writer. He has been published extensively on the issue of Palestine/Israel. Paul then worked in the criminal justice system, and - for more years than he cares to remember - was the Learning and Skills Manager in a high-security prison.

Caseworker (Housing and Legal)

Red joined KRAN in January 2024 having spent the past five years studying for both her BA in Social Anthropology and MA in International Relations. For the last year, she has been mentoring a young person with KRAN which she has thoroughly enjoyed. She has also spent time working on the advice line at Migrant Help assisting asylum seekers with their applications for Home Office housing and other support. She is now working at KRAN to offer assistance for a variety of housing and legal issues.

Early Intervention Caseworker

Originally from the Channel Islands, Sarah first became involved with KRAN in 2015 when she was running an external project. Working in multiple sectors, she has gained varied and effective partnerships with agencies and has built up extensive experience in providing support for refugee and asylum-seeking children. She firmly believes early support can help to prevent a larger crisis. Sarah works with young people across all our hubs as part of the Advocacy and Support Team.

Activities and Wellbeing Coordinator

Osama has been a KRAN service user and employee, becoming one of its first Youth Ambassadors (2020). In 2023, he was made a Youth Influencer and then moved to his current role. Osama will be leading on all KRAN activities (including sport, drama and art) and is keen to make them as accessible as possible for all our young people. Originally Syrian, Osama is passionate about supporting young refugees and asylum seekers and to help them grow and flourish. He is studying a degree in computer science.

Mentoring Project Coordinator

Gareth has been in his current role at KRAN since 2017. He has been working in social care for more than 15 years, largely focused on housing, homelessness, mental health and young people. His main focus in KRAN is promoting agency, support and independence for young people. At university, he studied sociology and social policy as an undergrad and his postgrad was in social work.

New Project Developer

Lou has been with KRAN since December 2020. She is working full time while studying for a PhD in human geography. Lou has 10 years’ experience in the charity sector, including four years running a befriending project in Islington, London (she remains a Trustee for this charity). While living in London, she volunteered for the Refugee Council alongside her paid work.

Youth Engagement Coordinator

Originally from Afghanistan and having run refugee support programmes in her home country as well as the UK, Fawzia brings a wealth of knowledge, empathy and expertise to KRAN. She has lived in Kenya, Ethiopia and Albania. With personal experience of being a refugee in the UK, she knows what our young people must deal with once they arrive here.

Youth Ambassador

Grmalem is from Eritrea and has been in the UK since September 2014. Before becoming a KRAN Ambassador, he was a Trainee. He says he wants to help newly-arrived refugees as much as possible because he was in their shoes once and remembers how much help he needed. This could be with KRAN's English lessons or lessons about England! Grmalem adds that he wants to be the mouth of people who can't express their feelings in a new place.

Youth Ambassador

Shahab, who is from Afghanistan, believes KRAN does a lot of good with young people. He says he loves working with the young people and enjoys helping them. Shahab went to Birmingham Metropolitan College before moving to Canterbury in 2021.  He is studying computer science.

Youth Ambassador

Luwam believes her role involves advocating for young asylum seekers and refugees to get their voices heard and to also help them to participate in daily activities to enable them to reach their full potential. Luwam also works with Catch22 as a sessional worker, which involves preparing and delivering presentations to young people and professionals across the UK. She is studying for an occupational therapy degree. 

Youth Ambassador

Obaida, who is from Syria, has been with KRAN for almost five years. He first got involved as a service user and then became a trainee, helping young people understand more about life in the UK and teaching them basic IT skills. This installed a passion to work with young people and help them achieve the best version of themselves. Obaida is also a Youth Ambassador at Youth Futures Foundation, representing the young people from diverse backgrounds. He studies computer science.