Sarah Adeyinka (PhD) is the founder and board chair of CoCreate VZW. She has been active in the field of humanitarian aid for over a decade, with a focus on people in vulnerable situations including refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. She worked on board two NGO Search And Rescue rescue vessels on the central Mediterranean involved in the rescue of migrants at sea. Her role included providing cultural mediation, identifying vulnerable women and referring them to the right channels for assistance.
She holds a PhD from Ghent University where she was part of the European Research Commission-funded ChildMove project and conducted research on the impact of transit experiences on the well-being of unaccompanied minors. Her part of the project focused on the convoluted experiences of young, female, Nigerian victims of trafficking along their migration trajectories. Alongside Sophie Samyn, she also carried out a study on the well-being of West African women working in prostitution in the Schaerbeek municipality of Brussels, a project which was funded by the municipality.
As chairperson ad interim of the European Union Agency for Asylum’s Consultative Forum (EUAA CF) from Nov 2022 – Nov 2023, Sarah was tasked with helping to develop and establish the working methods of the CF. Now that the CF methods have been successfully developed and have been adopted, her role as chair a.i. is done, and she will remain an active member of the CF. Sarah currently works as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam where she is part of the ERC-funded Reintegrate Project-understanding reintegration governance; and will be carrying out research in Nigeria.