Esohe Aghatise, PhD, Founder and Executive Director
Selected Honours and awards:
2013/2014: Awarded recognition by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) as one of the Women and Men Inspiring Europe for Gender Equality, 2014.
2008: Awarded “Service to the Nation Prize” by the Nigerian Government through the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
2007: Honoured by the US Secretary of State, State Department, U.S.A as “Hero Acting To End Modern-Day Slavery”
2005: Awarded “Madre Teresa di Calcutta” Prize in the Sector on Women in the Third Millennium of the International Literary and Artistic Prizes “Elio Vittoriani” of COBGE and of the Municipality of Messina in collaboration with the University of Messina, Sicily, Italy
Esohe founded Iroko in 1998 and has grown the organisation from a one-woman operation into an internationally recognised NGO. She is a UN Expert on Trafficking in Persons and in migrant female workers and highly experienced lawyer and senior management executive, having worked in a wide range of positions and capacities: anti trafficking lecturer and trainer, negotiator of international contracts, conflicts and cultural mediator and certified ethno-clinical therapist.
Esohe is on the Board of Directors of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), and in April 2019, she was also voted onto CAP International‘s board.
Nica Mammí – Turin Office
A graduate in History from the Federico II University in Naples, with a Master’s degree in Cultural Management for the Euro-Mediterranean area, she is a freelance journalist and a high school teacher.
A former teacher of Italian as a second language, over the years she has always been interested in topics such as migration, social integration and education of young people, and gender issues. A member of the Italian YWCA, together with her colleague Esohe, she has been working with Iroko since 2016 as the organisation’s office manager, taking care of public relations and project planning.
Ruby Till – Turin Office
An Economics graduate with a masters in Comparative Law, Economics and Finance from the International University College in Turin, Ruby previously worked and volunteered in the third sector in the UK on projects that focused on the engagement, inclusion and education of young people.
Ruby joined Iroko in early 2018 and supports the organisation with English-language project-planning and communication, managing IROKO’s engagement in international networks, and supporting Bernadeta in direct service provision.
Bernadeta Bortos – Turin Office
Bernadeta has been working with IROKO since the beginning of 2023, managing our service provision. Of Romanian origin and a qualified cultural mediator with experience in the field of health and migration, Bernadeta offers accompaniment and tailored support to our beneficiaries, with the aim of fostering individual autonomy and integration in the local community. Her personal experience as a migrant contributes to her holistic approach, a focus on the individual and a sensitivity informed by her personal experience.
Yoselina Guevara López
Venezuelan, with degrees in Psychopedagogy, Music Education, and with a Master’s degree in Coordination of Children’s Services, Yoselina works in international relations, economic journalism, corporate communication and accounting. Formerly responsible for international projects at the Rómulo Gallegos National Experimental University and coordinator of the ‘We are all UNASUR’ model, she has been working with IROKO since May 2023, managing the association’s administration and accounting.
Chiara Parolin
A lawyer registered with the Vicenza Bar Association, Chiara is mainly involved in the protection of women victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and women victims of violence. She works with Iroko in European and national projects on the protection of migrant women and the fight against the system of prostitution.
If you’d like to work with us, find out about any current vacancies on our Get Involved page.
Volunteers
IROKO has worked with a number of other skilled, passionate volunteers over the years, and we are always looking for people keen to make a difference.
If you’d like to volunteer with us, find out more about our volunteer positions on our Get Involved page.
Consultants
Davide Lo Bue
Davide is an environmental educator and outdoor excursion guide who, between 2008 and 2016, was a founding member of the Parco del Nobile Association and coordinated their training activities. He has managed the education activities of the Agriforest Cooperative for 17 years, he is an advisor on responsible tourism for WWF Italy in Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, and teaches courses in schools and for environmental educators. A lover of beekeeping, he has been an advisor to the Aspromiele Association since 2006 and is a coordinator of the national bee-education project. In his free time he manages educational beehives and facilitates beekeeping courses throughout Turin. He is keenly involved in the protection of biodiversity, organic beekeeping, food education, and the creation of school allotments and gardens.
To find out more about Davide’s collaboration with IROKO and all of our current projects, click here.
Kaleidos@Torino
Kaleidos run a CAF and offer various services to support both Italians and migrants, for example with searches for housing, as well as organising events to promote respect for cultural diversity and traditions. In 2019 Iroko began to collaborate with Kaleidos to offer our beneficiaries financial and administrative advice and services, such as preparing tax returns or applying for social benefits.
Blessing Okoedion
Blessing is a survivor of sex trafficking, now an activist who draws courage from her own experiences as a survivor to continue to raise awareness about sex trafficking as a form of violence against women and girls.
In 2019 she founded Weavers of Hope APS, a non profit organisation in Italy with the goal to combat sex trafficking and to rescue and empower girls and women trafficked from Nigeria for prostitution in Italy.
Blessing also travels around Nigeria to educate vulnerable women and girls in poor and remote areas to help them detect traffickers’ fraudulent recruitment and employment tactics, including false promises of work and a better life in large cities and other countries.
She was given a Trafficking in Persons Hero Award in 2018 in recognition of her fight against human trafficking.
In 2017, she published a book “The courage of freedom”, co-written with an Italian journalist Anna Pozzi, to tell her story and to shine a light on this abhorrent practice.