OUR STORY

NOW was created by a group of educators, entrepreneurs, activists, and changemakers from different parts of the world. Together, we bring in extensive professional experience in intercultural learning, youth empowerment, social entrepreneurship, non-formal education, social impact measurement, organizational development and social justice, among many more.

Working for many years in these fields, we found ourselves often debating what was missing: a program that doesn’t exclude, that doesn’t limit diversity to different national cultures, a program that fully and outspokenly offers learning opportunities that empower and generate change.

We created NOW working remotely from different corners of the world and yet being deeply connected to each other. Our work is guided by the values of Love, Boldness, Social Justice, Inclusion, Trust, Allyism and Personal Development.

MEET THE TEAM

Annina Schlatter

Annina is our learning facilitation expert and is part of the NOW community project.

ANNINA

Ömer Ongun

Ömer is a NOW facilitator and part of the NOW Community project.

ÖMER

Guto Veloso Leão

Guto is a NOW facilitator and part of the NOW Community project.

Elis Motta

Elis is a NOW facilitator and our expert in program design.

ELIS

Rahel Aschwanden

Rahel is part of the NOW Board and our lead of innovation.

RAHEL

Guto Veloso Leão

Guto is a NOW facilitator and part of the NOW Community project.

GUTO

Myrta Grubenmann

Myrta is president of the NOW board and part of the NOW community project.

MYRTA

Zlatka Niznanska

Zlatka is part of the NOW Board and our logistics and finance wizard.

ZLATKA

WE BELIEVE IN COLLABORATION

Collaboration lies at the core of NOW – and so does diversity. Therefore, NOW is working together with a wide range of different partner organisations. These organisations all have their own values and causes, and do not necessarily actively support each other.

Click here to read our shared values of collaboration.
Diversity is at the core of NOW. We understand diversity as the inclusion of different identities, values, interests, worldviews, passions and causes. To ensure diversity in our program and our participants, NOW is working together with a wide range of partner organisations – from environmental activists to empowerment initiatives for marginalized youth and LGBT support groups to religious communities. This also, quite naturally, implies that their values as well as their views on certain topics can vary greatly – that’s what makes a great learning environment possible.
However, all partners here displayed share a common understanding of the following core values:
- A clear endorsement of and commitment to human rights as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
- Rejection of any form of physical or psychological violence;
- Openness to dialogue;
- Respect towards any differences – as long as they do not lead to infringement of the above principles.
Beyond these principles, the values and opinions of our partners may differ. Furthermore, being a partner organisation of NOW does not necessarily imply actively supporting other partner organisations’ causes or practices, but it certainly implies respecting differences.
NOW shares with its partners our commitment to diversity, social change, and the belief that if we want to go far, we’d better go together.

Annina Schlatter

Ömer Ongun

Guto Veloso Leão

Elis Motta

Rahel Aschwanden

Guto Veloso Leão

Myrta Grubenmann

Zlatka Niznanska

WE BELIEVE IN COLLABORATION

OUR PARTNERS