We are delighted to announce that Helena Hassani has joined the Mercy Foundation as our inaugural Modern Slavery Lead. Helena is a human rights advocate and leading expert on the prevention of child and forced marriage and family violence. Helena has much experience in working with victim-survivors of family violence, modern slavery especially child and forced marriage and forced labour.
Helena is the Director of Boland Parwaz PTY LTD which is working towards a future without child and forced marriage. Through her organisation, Helena was selected as one of 44 global fellows of innovative social leadership by the US-based Echoing Green Foundation. Later this year she will travel to Ghana to meet other fellows and undergo training.
She is a multilingual female facilitator of Men’s Behaviour Change Program for Intouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence in Victoria. Helena is also a research assistant for the Anti-Slavery Australia at the University of Technology Sydney.
Helena has Master of Human Rights Law, Bachelor of Social Work and Bachelor of Health Science from Monash University.
Helena was a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva for the Annual Tripartite Consultation on Resettlement in 2023. She has also been an NGO delegate to the United National recently in March 2024 in New York for the Consultation on the Status of Women 68th Conference.
Helena was awarded a silver medal at the Women Changing the World Award 2024 for the Cultural Diversity and Inclusion Impact category.
Her vision is for a future where no girl experiences child or forced marriage.
We are excited to have Helena join the Mercy Foundation team. She brings much experience and expertise and will drive our work in addressing modern slavery in Australia.
Helena is also a poet and writes poems on forced marriage and issues related to violence against women and girls.
You can read more about Helena in this article.
