Young Humanists International

Ana Raquel Aquino is a Guatemalan lawyer specialized in public policies, good governance, and Human Rights by the Autonomous University of Madrid. She is the president and member of the board in Humanistas Guatemala. She has worked in the public sector and for several Non-Governmental/International Organizations advocating the topics of the right to health for indigenous communities in Guatemala, gender equality, legal empowerment, accountability, and social justice.

For her, humanism is not just a philosophy but a way of living with empathy with others. She does not believe you have to be religious in order to be a good-ethical person. Her ultimate goal and wishes for the whole American Continent: the separation between church and state in order to defend democracy.

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As the Young Humanists International Coordinator,  Javan works closely with young humanists worldwide, focusing on their development and growth as humanists.

Before joining Humanists International, Javan has been active in community work zeroing on environmental conservation, climate justice, human rights, and civic engagement advocacies since 2012. He is currently the Chief Executive of Humanists Alliance Philippines International. The co-founder and former pioneer president of the Association of Young Environmental Journalists, a youth-led environmental media organization. He is also the former Director for Design and Creatives of ATO-ClimatEducate Project, scholar alumni of Temasek Foundation International – Specialists Community Action and Leadership Exchange program in Singapore, and represented the Philippines during the ASEAN Plus Three Youth Environment Forum 2019 in Thailand.

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An organic chemist by training, DJ now works in a bioprocessing laboratory investigating cultured meat. He also founded Starter Culture, a Singapore-based food biotechnology start-up, which crafts novel fermented food products and upcycles food waste to create alternative sources of protein.

He currently serves as Vice President of the Humanist Society (Singapore), where he champions interfaith harmony, advocates for civil discourse, and defends secular spaces.

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Justice is a humanist and the current Communications Officer of the Humanist Association of Ghana (HAG). Justice’s role in HAG is to coordinate all communications of his organization in both online and offline media. As someone who believes in socialism, he wants to see a fair world and everyone having equal opportunities.

Aside from his work at the Humanist Association of Ghana, he is also an ardent Wikipedia volunteer and engages in volunteer activities around human rights, mental health, digital rights, and climate action. When he is not volunteering, Justice works as a Digital strategist and a Communications person.

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Andrea is an activist involved in many fields, all linked by the life experiences encountered. Andrea was born in Palermo, Italy, in 1992; when they were very young, they felt the humanist push and the need for a commitment in this direction. After freeing himself from the religious sect in which the family raised them, Andrea declared himself an atheist and approached the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR).

Today Andrea lives in Bologna, Italy, and they’re a freelancer, working for non-profit projects and events as a fundraising consultant and partnerships developer. Andrea also sits on the Board of Gruppo Trans, a large empowerment group of trans* people, Centro Risorse LGBTI, a thematic research group, and NaKa, a youth center they helped found in a tough neighborhood in their hometown. Since May 2021, they have taken on the role of Regional Coordinator for Europe for Young Humanists International.

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Evan is a humanist entrepreneur, political consultant, and public speaker with over 12 years of experience tinkering with secular communities. Evan is also the founder and creative director of Spectrum Experience LLC and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Secular Student Alliance. Previously he was co-host of the Humanist Experience podcast and co-founder of the Humanist Community of Ventura County.

As a student leader, Evan was the founder and president of the Secular Student Alliance at California Lutheran University (CLU). In 2010, Evan was also elected CLU’s first openly atheist student body president. Evan was hired in 2019 as Atheists United’s first Executive Director.

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Gerardo Rivera Chaparro is a resident of the Municipality of Rincón, Puerto Rico. A graduate of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Sciences, specializing in horticulture and an agronomist by trade. He founded and chaired the “Secular Humanist Association UPRM”, the first and only group of secular students on the campus and in the entire Puerto Rican public university system. Currently the Secretary for Humanists of Puerto Rico, he also served on various student activism forums, including the Americans United for Separation of Church & State (AU) Youth Advisory Council, and the Secular Student Alliance National Leadership Council.

Gerardo’s work focuses on promoting humanism as a progressive philosophy and educating the public on various social and scientific issues, primarily the importance of the constitutional separation of church and state, as well as combating the social stigma faced by the secular community. As the new Regional Coordinator for the Americas, the goal is to increase the participation and representation of these countries in the humanist and secular sphere.

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