Mehra Rimer

Biography

Mehra Rimer is a peace advocate, co-founder and chair of B8 of Hope. After her studies at the Ecole de Traduction et d'Interprétation de l'Université de Genève and at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris, she worked in education, training and as a translator for different entities, among those are peace-building organizations such as Search for Common Ground in Washington DC and Fondation Hirondelle/Justice Info in Lausanne. In 2016, she co-founded B8 of Hope with 7 other co-founders, all from different origins and backgrounds. B8's mission is to promote Israeli and Palestinian grassroots initiatives of dialogue, bridge-building and non-violence by giving them: better visibility (through conferences in schools, universities and other venues), networking opportunities, funds for specific projects on the ground (through fund raising events in Geneva), better structure and governance.
Having a central role in the organization, Mehra is involved in almost every aspect of its work.
In two years of existence, B8 of Hope has supported several projects including those of : Judur/Shorashim/Roots (Israeli and Palestinian children summer camps, Pre-Army Academy meetings), Taghyeer/Change (Non-violent development projects linked to the environment), Combatants for Peace (Role play workshops), Women Wage Peace (Politics of Acquaintance meetings and the Women Wage Peace March of Hope 2017), Karama Center (incubator for non-violent initiatives), Polyphony-Keshet Eilon music seminar of bridge-building.
This year, the focus will be on creating a synergy among the initiatives in Israel and Palestine (through workshops and by encouraging joint actions) and reinforcing the current collaboration with other organizations in Switzerland and the US, whose work is complementary to B8's, with the objective that synergy will result in a bigger impact on the ground.