Michèle Young has over two decades of experience as an architect, in the UK and Poland, and as a humanitarian and international development practitioner. Michèle advised and supported teams worldwide to deliver best practice in emergency shelter, housing reconstruction and social infrastructure (re)construction in both conflict and environmental disasters in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.

Now Michèle is the Development Coordination Manager, for Tower Hamlet, a local authority in London. In this role she is offering innovative and practical solutions to tackling the negative impacts of construction on residents and businesses and supporting a move toward a Circular Economy for the built environment.

Have you ever thought why the world map is upside down in My MARS mantra podcast logo? Meet Richard Turner, who gave me this idea to look at things from a fresh perspective. As we are celebrating the Earth Day earlier this week, let’s find out from Richard, what Sustainable Fundraising mean? How can we bring both the profit and not-for profit sectors together to reach a common goal for saving our planet?

Richard has over 30 years of fundraising experience for many UK-based charities, like Solar Aid, Action Aid, Farm Africa and Oxfam. Richard also trains on fundraising for charities around the world to turn supporters into advocates, by offering a great experience, by learning from failure and by telling a great story.

Farah Mihlar grew up in Sri Lanka, witnessing the civil war. She then became a journalist, and now a human rights activist working at international policy level, while teaching at Oxford Brookes University. Farah is passionate on advocating minority rights and women's rights, working on conflict prevention, peace building and transitional justice. Farah holds a PhD, where she did an ethnographic field research on political Islam and Islamic religious movements in Sri Lanka. Farah also continues to challenge the concept of decolonisation, and its impact on us in our day to day lives in academia as well as in practice.