Amir Hassan: Gaza
Poet and Journalist

Amir Hassan grew up in the Al Shati camp near the beach in Gaza. At age 18, he heard about French in college and decided to learn it. Four years later, he writes prize-winning poems in French. At 20, he leaves the Gaza Strip for the first time. He has a scholarship and has assisted in teaching Arabic at Henry IV High School for 3 years. In recent years, he has been teaching and publishing poems. He has been in France for 10 years, living and working in Paris as a journalist for France 24. He returned to Gaza to see his family just before the attacks of 7 October 2023. He was stuck for a month before being able to return to France. His parents, younger sister and younger brother were evacuated and are housed in Clermont-Ferrand pending the outcome of their asylum application.

Oksana Leuta: Ukraine
Comedian, Teacher and Translator

Oksana Leuta grew up in Ukraine during the period of crisis following the fall of the Soviet Union. Her parents were teachers and she decided to study French in Ukraine, and then theatre in France. In 2014, demonstrations began and the people of Kyiv occupied Maidan Square. She joined the medical team and spent weeks helping with logistics and organizing the on-site makeshift hospitals. In recent years, she was a teacher, actress and night manager at a secret techno club in Kyiv that organizes queer parties. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine and the war, she has been a translator for international journalists with whom she comes close to the front line to tell the world about the war. She continues to participate in theatrical projects in Ukraine and abroad.