About Hellen
Portuguese
Native or bilingual
English
Fluent
Spanish
Fluent
Experience
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),Associate Protection OfficerNovember 2024 - April 2025 (6 months)San José Province, San José, Costa Rica1 . Led an RSD profiling exercise focused on asylum claims from Nicaraguan nationals. This included the conceptualization and development of key tools such as interview and legal assessment templates, KoBo forms for data collection, interview guidelines, and country of origin information (COI) materials. 2. Conducted 100 interviews and legal assessments based on international protection standards. 3. Analyzed collected data and presented findings in collaboration with the Information Management Unit, contributing to evidence-based decision-making. 4. Supported the Office to have tangible understating of Nicaraguan caseload and provided RSD tools to support engagements with government counterparts to implement a triaging system and RSD differentiated processing modalities.
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),Associate Field OfficerJanuary 2023 - October 2024 (1 year and 9 months)Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela1 . Coordinated a multidisciplinary team of five staff members from the Protection and Information Management Units at the Maracaibo Field Office to implement a broad range of activities, including legal assistance, documentation, community-based protection, data collection, and reintegration of refugees, across three states, in collaboration with six implementing partners. 2. Achieved full execution (100%) of the direct implementation budget for 2023, navigating a highly sensitive political context. 3. Led the team in establishing and maintaining strategic partnerships and work plans with mayoral offices in nine municipalities, including second largest city in Venezuela, Maracaibo. This collaboration resulted in the consolidation of a one-stop protection space, which was later replicated in other regions of the country. 4. Conceptualized, implemented, and monitored multiple donor-funded projects (Japan, ECHO, and CERF), managing all phases from design to reporting, and successfully organized and accompanied donor field visits. 5. Promoted inter-agency collaboration through a NEXUS approach, jointly implementing activities with FAO,UNDP, IOM, and UNFPA, and contributed to the coordination of the local Protection Cluster.In South Sudan:1 . Supported the operation in South Sudan to put in place, for the first time, a streamlined RSD/RST processing tomeet a target of 700 individual resettlement submissions.2. Conducted RSD and RST interviews and case individual analysis/RRFs in close collaboration with Regional Bureau. 3. Supported the physical establishment of the RST center in Juba, South Sudan.
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),Associate Protection OfficerJanuary 2020 - December 2022 (2 years and 11 months)Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico1 . Served as UNHCR's RSD primary focal point to Mexico's Asylum Commission (COMAR), the largest in the Americas, under the Quality Asylum Initiative. 2. Developed Refugee Status Determination (RSD) tools, legal reports, Country of Origin Information (COI), and other legal documents aligned with international law and best practices, representing UNHCR's position on key protection issues. 3. Designed and implemented a remote work transition plan for COMAR during the COVID-19 pandemic,ensuring uninterrupted operations and continuity of asylum procedures.4. Supported the adoption of triage and differentiated case processing modalities, contributing to a 146% increase in decision-making capacity between 2020 and 2022, and reducing the duration of certain interviews to under 30 minutes. 5. Developed a data dashboard in collaboration with the Information Management Unit, enabling real-time monitoring of decision-making capacity and recognition rates by nationality, which informed strategic planning and operational adjustments. 6. Led the realignment of activities for over 80 eligibility officers across multiple offices, promoting specialization by country of origin and procedure type, and establishing clear benchmarks to enhance efficiency and consistency. 7. Oversaw the quality review of 210 interviews and 266 legal assessments and delivered a comprehensive recommendations report to COMAR to strengthen procedural standards. 8. Supported UNHCR in assessing COMAR's financial needs and identifying potential international support and monitored the implementation of a 1 million CAD project funded by Immigration, Refugees and CitizenshipCanada (IRCC) to strengthen Mexico's asylum system.9. Designed and facilitated multiple training sessions for government officials, including two national three-day RSD retreats, both of which received 5/5 rating from COMAR participants.
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Education
- LLM Peace Operations, Humanitarian Law and Conflictthe National University of Ireland (Ollscoil na hÉireann)2016LLM
- BA in AnthropologyFederal University of Paraná2015Bachelor of Arts (BA)