Motivational speaker and podcaster Jaz O'Hara is the founder of The Worldwide Tribe, an organisation and online community supporting refugees and asylum seekers globally.
The Worldwide Tribe was born from a life-changing Facebook post Jaz wrote about her first trip to the Calais Jungle in July 2015. Jaz’s authentic account went viral, raising £250,000, reaching over 13 million people and sparking the collection of physical donations by the tonne - filling warehouses across the country.
Jaz has worked tirelessly in refugee camps across Europe and the Middle East ever since, telling the stories that too often go unheard.
As a writer for The Huffington Post, winner of Marie Claire’s ‘Future Shaper’ award and member of Amnesty International’s ‘Collective’, Jaz has become a leading voice on the topic of migration, speaking everywhere from TedX, to the United Nations in NYC.
Jaz’s work comes from a personal place, and dates back to early 2015 when her parents began fostering an unaccompanied minor named Mez from Eritrea. Mez made the journey across the world as a child refugee, and was the first of four new brothers to join Jaz’s family, also from Afghanistan, Sudan and most recently, a 13-year-old boy from Libya.
The Worldwide Tribe is the continuation of this global family.
Jaz and her team are dedicated to challenging the fear-based narrative of today's media and society and do so through film, talks and an extremely popular podcast. Jaz’s natural gift for storytelling has powered many projects on the ground including installing WiFi in camps in France and Greece, running art projects in Za'atari camp in Jordan, supporting a Search-and-Rescue in the Mediterranean and many more.
intro music from www.scottholmesmusic.com