Our board members are Sherlien Sanches, Umayya Abu-Hanna and Eduardo Cáceres Salgado

Sherlien Sanches born in Surinam in 1979. She moved to Netherlands when she was about 1 year old where she was brought up. Her dad is creole from the Caribbean. And her mom is from the Native Karinya tribe that lives in the northern part of South America. Sanches works on Sustainable event management. And with her own business, A Touch of Spirit she organizes events for organizations who create a sustainable and social impact. She works for the Earth Charter since 2008 and is part of the Earth Charter team The Netherlands. Furthermore, she is involved with several programs concerning Indigenous projects and activities in The Netherlands and in Surinam.

Umayya Abu-Hanna, is a Palestinian born in Haifa, who moved to Finland in 1981 where she was a Finnish writer and columnist. After moving to Amsterdam she co-founded ‘Rethink Amsterdam’ and was the Netherlands’ advisor for the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux and senior adviser for CIE ‘Centre for International Heritage Activities’ in Leiden. She was a member of multiple committees in different Finnish ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance, Education and Culture. On the local level Abu-Hanna was a member of the Helsinki City Council. Currently, Abu-Hanna is a cultural broker and involved in the cultural-political change, both in the diaspora and in the Arab world. Umayya graduated from Aalto University in Audio-visual Journalism and was the first journalist of ‘colour’ presenting a current-affairs TV-program at the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

Eduardo Cáceres Salgado born in Alkmaar  in 1983 to parents who came to The Netherlands as political refugees from the dictatorship in Chile. He studied regenerative agriculture and is founder of Mas Newen, a company that makes natural and plantbased cosmetics together with local and Indigenous farmers. He is also founder of the Kodkod Foundation that promotes regenerative farming and ecosystem restoration in Chile and in the Netherlands he is board-member and co-founder of the Amsterdamse Frisdrank Fabriek, a circulair and sustainable craft soda company

See previous page for team members