founded Action for Women in 2015. She has worked in emergency settings on the Balkan route, Italy and then Greece, where she spent 20 months on the aegean island of Chios. While working in the camps, she observed how women’s voices are unheard and needs specific to the gender are unmet in the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War 2. 

She opened the Athena Centre for Women in July 2016 – the first all-women space outside of any official camp structures in Greece. The Athena Centre provided crucial services requested by the vulnerable women residents of the camps, in order to address the gaps in protection and incidents of gender based violence. Her vision to provide safety, support and hope for the women who are able to leave Chios onto the mainland, saw the birth of the Halcyon Days Project in Athens in August 2018. 

Gabrielle graduated from the University of Exeter, UK’s law faculty with first class honours and has practiced in the United Kingdom and Singapore as an advocate and solicitor. This passionate advocate for women’s rights has dedicated countless pro-bono hours in various legal aid clinics and women shelters representing the underprivileged and marginalised women in civl and criminal matters. 

Gabrielle currently considers Exarcheia in Athens her home.  

A women’s rights specialist with over a decade of experience in programming for women’s rights with displaced communities in fragile and conflict contexts with national and international NGOs across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including in Afghanistan, the Syria refugee response in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Somalia.

She worked in the Greece refugee response as Gender and Protection Lead with Oxfam and is currently global Head of Gender Equality in Humanitarian with an international organisation.

Nina is based in Kypseli, Athens with her dog, Squeaky.