Our Bloom team
Our team comes from all corners of the world. We deeply care about the experiences of survivors and the many ways in which our identity affects our experience of trauma, as many of us, are survivors ourselves.
Core team
Hera Hussain is the founder and CEO of Chayn. She has years of experience supporting survivors. She’s our Safeguarding Lead. Hera was raised in Pakistan and came to the UK to study Psychology and Economics. Hera was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 and MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list, and was awarded the British Empire Medal by the Queen.
Nooreen Khan is a Bangladeshi who grew up in Abu Dhabi, UAE and now lives in Edmonton, Canada. She is a gender-based violence expert with a background in public health. One of the longest members of Chayn, Nooreen joined the team in 2016 as a volunteer and now is the Community and Culture Lead, responsible for managing the team’s wellbeing, supporting operations, and facilitating Bloom courses.
Mehak Ahmed is from Delhi, India. She has a Masters in Psychology (Psychosocial Clinical Studies) from Ambedkar University, Delhi. She is a counselling psychologist, a certified yoga instructor and is part of an improv collective on the side. At Chayn, she is supporting the building of the Bloom project, working on trauma-informed courses, facilitating them and expanding these courses to Hindi-speaking communities.
Zoë Firth grew up in California, USA and the UK. Her background is in psychology; after an undergraduate psychology degree she worked in acute inpatient psychiatric care, before completing a research MSc in Clinical Linguistics. Since joining Chayn as a volunteer in 2020, Zoë now leads the Bloom project, writing and developing courses, managing the team, and consulting on trauma-informed design.
Beatriz Diaz is a Colombian residing in Santa Marta. She has a background in Service Design, is co-owner of a shoe store and has worked at the intersection of design, social innovation and mental healthcare. She joined Chayn as a volunteer in 2020 and now is responsible for designing trauma-informed websites, user research and facilitating Bloom courses.
Our volunteers
Chayn began as a volunteer-run network of survivors and allies that wanted to create a feminist space online for information, solidarity and healing. Our volunteers continue to play an important part in informing, reviewing and designing our services.
Our therapists
We co-create our courses with a network of certified therapists who practice a trauma-informed and feminist approach. They are based all across the world, and speak many languages.
Supporting team
Our wider team has helped us edit, write, and record our course videos, and some of them also provide support over 1-1 chat. They bring with them a wealth of knowledge and life experience, and have been trained by Chayn. You may even come across someone who is based in the same place as you!
Our research and awards
Chayn has the honour of receiving many awards for its innovative work.
Bloom has received the following awards:
2022 Anthem Awards - Silver 2022
CogX Global Goals - Good Health and Well-Being Award
You can see the full list of awards here.
Funded by
Bloom is brought to you by Chayn, a global non-profit, run by survivors and allies from around the world, creating resources to support the healing of survivors of gender-based violence.
Our policies