Tzeggai Yohannes Deres

"To me sustainability is about working together in order to create a just society that nurtures, empowers and protects every individual."

Eritrea to Lambeth is quite a journey and Tzeggai is proud to call London the "capital of all world cities". Working in the refugee sector Tzeggai believes that sustainability is key to what he does, "The world is connected and therefore taking responsibility for our locality, city, country and having an international conscience is part of the sustainability of that world." Tzeggai’s leadership role will involve building awareness of the world around us and sharing experiences – working for the ‘sustainable capital of all world cities’.

Tzeggai came to the UK in 1986 from Eritrea in East Africa and in 1994 became the founding Director of the Evelyn Oldfield Unit - providing specialist support to well established refugee organisations enabling them to tackle the needs of the communities they serve.

Since coming to the UK and working initially for the Refugee Council, Tzeggai has taken on additional roles and amongst others is a member of the Central Governing Body of the City Parochial Foundation, a member of the Board of Consortium of Opportunities For Volunteering, the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, and a member of the National Refugee Integration Forum.

"Sustainability has always been important to me. I have a strong belief in people’s individual contributions to quality of life, and sustainability is about maximising that contribution through getting connected. Sustainability has helped to enhance my view and understanding of different perspectives and respect those differences. Not knowing about these differences leads to exclusivity."

For Tzeggai partnership working is key to a sustainable approach and he has worked hard creating bridges between different communities and with different sectors. Tzeggai is particularly proud to have been involved in creating a course for emerging community leaders, the Inspirational Leadership Programme, through a partnership between the Evelyn Oldfield Unit, the Home Office and the National School of Government.

"For my vision of London in 2050 - a city of example and leadership, where there is high and equal quality of life for residents - I think we have very strong foundations, but we have to go further." In terms of making changes in our own lives, Tzeggai thinks it’s partly a resource issue. "It’s easier to make changes if you have resources. If you don’t, self-respect and taking responsibility for yourself and others must be the first step. Help people to step out of their boxes and understand what they can contribute by making small changes."

My commitment
"To establish a network of refugee leaders, the purpose of which is to increase understanding and active participation of refugee organisations and communities in the sustainability of London. The target group for the network will be leaders who over the last ten years have attended a high level leadership programme organised by the Evelyn Oldfield Unit. Each of these leaders plays an important role in serving their communities and the challenge is enabling this intellectual capital and proven experiences to benefit the sustainability of London: present and future."