Tina Bouffet '11, Young Alumni Award Recipient 2023
Tina Bouffet embodies the TFS mission: her career is dedicated to reducing the impact of armed conflict and violence. She has undertaken humanitarian work around the world, and continues to create positive change working with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in conflict zones in Africa.
Since her school days at TFS, Tina was passionate about justice and making a difference. It was with guidance from TFS staff, that she first realized where her passions and interests lay and committed to pursuing an international career in human rights. After graduating from TFS with stellar grades, Tina went on to complete a Bachelor’s in European social and political studies at the University College London, graduating with a First Class honours and a master’s degree in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action from Sciences Po. While at Sciences Po, Tina co-founded Sciences Po Refugee Help, a student association that provides humanitarian aid and supports the rights of asylum seekers in the region. Today, the association is one of the largest movements on campus.
Over the course of her career, Tina explored working in advocacy. Her work includes an internship supporting Eritrean and South Sudanese refugees in Israel, roles in public service and as a federal caseworker for MP Olivia Chow. Today, she believes she has finally found her niche as a humanitarian worker with the ICRC. She is currently deployed to the Central African Republic as an ICRC detention delegate. Her role focuses on visiting persons arrested in relation to the conflict in the region to ensure that their detention conditions and treatment is aligned with international humanitarian law. For Tina, this is a meaningful opportunity to not only ensure just treatment of detained persons, but to help create conditions that will support future reconciliation efforts. Through creating opportunities for communication between detained persons and their families, and through working to improve the conditions detained persons face, Tina hopes ICRC’s actions will help build goodwill and foster dialogue between groups currently in conflict.
