HISTORY
Pea Comms was established in 2019 by the innovators behind Refugee.Info — a social media community engagement project that broke new ground in humanitarian response.
The project engaged with digital refugee communities across Europe, producing information, answering questions and fact-checking rumours — in 6 languages and 6 different countries
And it worked. By the project’s close more than one million people had accessed our information, 83% of users said we were trustworthy and user feedback was used to shape sector-wider response.
We established Pea Comms to channel our expertise into empowering more communities and catalysing change in approaches to community engagement.
TEAM
We’re a diverse team of innovators and researchers, from backgrounds in communications, technology, engineering, humanitarianism and human rights. We also work with a surge network of talented freelancers to help us pivot to new languages and contexts.
Many of our team have first hand experience of displacement, aid and relying on information (often absent or incomplete) to claim their rights and rebuild their lives.
FRAN PENFOLD
Fran Penfold is an expert in harnessing social media to communicate with communities in crisis.
She launched social media programming for Refugee.Info in Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Bosnia — formulating strategies to meet community priorities per context and sub-population.
She has authored the humanitarian sector’s first comprehensive operational guidance on engaging with affected populations on social media.
LEILA EFTETAHI
Leila Eftetahi specialises in the digital behaviours, communication preferences and information needs of communities from Afghanistan and Iran.
She spent three years working on the Refugee.Info project as Social Media Moderation Manager where she shaped strategy and best-practice in feedback processes, accountability and community generated content.
Mulham ibrik
Mulham Ibrik is a translation, community engagement and digital platforms specialist.
He focuses on the mechanics and systems behind community engagement and keeping people safe — designing and implementing processes and platforms to manage community engagement, feedback and follow-up.
Originally from Aleppo, he specialises in Arabic speaking populations and the Syrian diaspora. At Refugee.Info he oversaw translation and community engagement in six languages.
BARAA ASFARI
Baraa Asfari is an expert on the digital behaviours and information priorities of Syrian social media communities
He specialises in rumour and misinformation monitoring and has a background in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence.
At Refugee.Info he helped determine informational priorities and adapt social media programming in response to community feedback.
CHEIKH GUEYE
Cheikh Gueye specialises in localized information needs and digital behaviours of French and English speaking West African diaspora communities.
Originally from Senegal, he has spent the last 8 years working at the heart of Italy’s refugee crisis for organisations including UNHCR, IOM and Save the Children..
He joined Refugee.Info Italy as a Community Moderator and was instrumental in ensuring interventions reflected the real information priorities and preferences of communities.