Advisory Board

Cheekay Cinco

ASIA

Cheekay works in the intersections where feminism, social justice and technology meet. She has been involved in the strategic use of technologies for activism since 1998, working with groups and activists to support them in making better decisions about technology. Holistic digital safety is a big part of that – where she has worked as a facilitator-trainer, curriculum developer, evaluator, responder and co-conspirator. Her current engagements have been about co-designing processes and holding spaces for collective learning and collaboration with communities and groups involved in digital rights, feminist tech, technology and activism. She works primarily with feminist groups based in the Global Majority, mostly in Southeast Asia. She is based in the Philippines.

Porcho Marguerite Sogoba

AFRICA

Committed to women’s rights in the digital space, Porcho co-founded Musodev and Tech & Emploi, two initiatives dedicated to empowering women and youth through technology and employability. Their programmes cover key areas such as web and mobile development, cybersecurity, blogging, graphic design, and digital entrepreneurship. Beyond training, they have raised awareness among nearly 4,000 women and youth about career opportunities in tech. Believing that digital tools can be a powerful weapon in the fight against gender-based violence, Sogoba initiated “Zéro VBG”, an innovative application for raising awareness and preventing violence against women in Mali. This platform provides information, guidance, and support for victims while mobilizing communities for lasting change. Through Tech & Emploi, Porcho developed training programs in green job search techniques and digital marketing, impacting more than 1,200 young people, including many women. Porcho’s mission is to break gender stereotypes, promote women’s inclusion in the digital sector, and equip them with the tools they need for professional and personal empowerment.

Frerieke Van Bree

CROSS-REGIONAL

Frerieke is dedicated to creating personal and community well-being spaces, focusing on human rights. Since 2014, she has facilitated the creation of DDP into a diverse team of over 40 people spread out over 25 countries. Under her leadership DDP developed their focus on regionalisation, GEDI and decolonisation. In 2025, she handed over to regional project managers to co-lead DDP further. Through DDP’s Advisory Board she hopes to stay connected and support the development of DDP into unknown futures. Her experience ranges from programme management, fundraising, donor management, team management, coaching and training.

Meerim is an organisational strengthening practitioner and certified mediator with deep experience in navigating conflict and building supportive systems within movements and organisations, especially during moments of rupture. Meerim’s approach is shaped by more than two decades of global human rights work, particularly in the protection and well-being of human rights defenders in high-risk contexts. Born and raised in Kyrgyzstan, she brings a global lens to her work, with a critical awareness of how Western frameworks translate across cultural and geopolitical settings. As a queer, disabled Muslim feminist, she is guided by the writings of bell hooks and the principle that meaning must be constructed collectively from lived experiences. She centres trauma-informed, justice-oriented practices in all aspects of her work. She holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Washington and a certificate in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Extension School. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife and daughter. Meerim currently serves as the Head of Inclusion and Organizational Improvement at the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.

Pilar is a physicist with a master’s degree in science from the National University of Colombia. She is an enthusiast of free software, open technologies and free culture. For the last 15 years, she has worked as a researcher on the social appropriation of science and technology, as a digital rights advocate, as a project manager on civic participation issues (surveillance, transparency, elections), and as a digital security trainer. Pilar founded the Digital Security and Privacy Laboratory at the Karisma Foundation. Currently, she is still working at Karisma as CEO advisor and consultant. Pilar is part of the COSIC community, a Latin American and Caribbean network of people and organisations that provide assistance and support to members of civil society in the region on security and protection, with a focus on digital security. She is particularly interested in digital technologies that serve people’s interests and needs while respecting their rights.

Hanan has worked for over twenty-five years at the intersection of human rights, law and technology with a broad community base, including non-profits, social justice movements, domestic and foreign governmental institutions, UN bodies, and philanthropy. Her work has always focused on building the strength of communities, activating accountability mechanisms and exploring the potential of data and technology to empower movements and protect the most vulnerable. She was formerly the Director of Fellowships and Awards at the Mozilla Foundation and Programme Officer at the Oak Foundation’s International Human Rights Programme, amongst many other roles. She lived in the occupied Palestinian territory from 1994 until 2005, where she developed her expertise in human rights protection, particularly focusing on refugee rights, arbitrary detention and torture, the protection of civilians during armed conflict and international accountability. She acted as an advisor in the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations and participated on behalf of Palestine in the International Court of Justice case on Israel’s construction of a wall in occupied Palestinian territory.