Meet the COPE Champions around the world!
We want to express our gratitude to all the COPE Champions worldwide! Your dedication and contributions have been truly remarkable. Your commitment to promoting resilience, community engagement, and sustainable approaches has inspired us and many others. We are immensely thankful for your invaluable support and for helping us create the COPE books that make a meaningful difference in addressing hazards. We are honoured to have such dedicated individuals as part of our global COPE community. Thank you, COPE Champions, for your exceptional contributions!
Meet Professor Machado, Dr Ramos and Dr Prometi from Brazil
Professor Francilene Machado de Almeida is an Assistant Professor of Brazilian Sign Language (LSB) at the University of Brasília (UnB) in the Department of Linguistics, Portuguese and Classical Languages (LIP), a PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Évora – UÉ in Évora, Portugal and a Master in Linguistics from the University of Brasília (UnB), Brazil. She specialises in Teaching Higher Education at FABEC (Brazilian Faculty of Education and Culture). She graduated with a Licentiate’s degree Course in Letters – Libras in the EaD (Distance Education) modality for the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree Course in computer science from the Federal University of Goiás – Campus Catalão (UFG-CAC), Brazil.
Professor Machado is a former Teacher of Instrumental English for the Deaf and Libras Instrumental for non-deaf Employees at Industry John Deere. She is a volunteer collaborator for the “Inventory of Brazilian Sign Language – Federal District” project at UFSC/UnB and has previously volunteered for the “National Inventory of Signs-Term in the Field of Historical and Cultural Heritage in Libras” project. Her research interests encompass Deaf Education Technology, Deaf Culture, Sign Language, Lexicology, Lexicography, Terminology, Terminography, and English Language in Educational Materials.
Dr Messias Ramos Costa is an Adjunct Professor of Libras disciplines at the University of Brasília (UnB), coordinator of the Licentiate Degree Course in Portuguese-Brazilian Sign Language as a Second Language (LSB-PSL), and Coordinator of the EncicloSigno de Signs-term of Sign Languages Project. He graduated in Pedagogy from the Faculty of Jesus Maria José (Taguatinga-DF) and in Letters-Libras from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, at UnB pole, with a specialization from Central Society for Higher Education – Faculty Central of Cristalina. He obtained a master’s and a doctorate in linguistics at the University of Brasilia, with research in Brazil and Portugal. He was a technical collaborator at DIPEBS (Board of Bilingual Education Policies for the Deaf) / MEC (Ministry of Education, Brazil).
Dr Ramos’s professional experience covers basic education and higher education and he is a defender of the deaf community in Brasilia. He was the Director of FENEIS-DF (National Federation of Education and Integration of the Deaf – Federal District) and Director of Educational and Linguistic Policy-FENEIS / DF. In the academic field, he works in the areas of Libras / Linguistics. Creator of the Enciclolibras/EncicloSigns Project. His research interests include Libras grammar, Lexicology and Terminology, and encyclopedic proposals in/with sign languages. He was a former volunteer collaborator of LibrasGOV, a volunteer researcher at COPE (Disaster Series) and an Executive Researcher of the Midwest Region of UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) / UnB. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board of “Meu Sinalário”.
Dr Daniela Prometi is a PhD in Linguistics and Master in Linguistics from the University of Brasília (UnB), with a research focus on Brazilian Sign Language (LSB) and Lexicology, Lexicography, Terminology, and Terminography of Sign Languages. She graduated in Letters-Libras from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) at the University of Brasília (UnB).
Dr Prometi is a specialist in Brazilian Sign Language at Instituto Eficaz. She has an internship in teaching in the Libras area (UnB). She was the tutor of the second class of the Degree in Letters-Libras at UFSC, at the University of Brasília. She was a tutor in the Libras discipline of the Licentiate’s degree Course in Letters, Biology, and Geography (UAB / UNB). Currently, she is a researcher at the Laboratory of Sign Language Linguistics (LabLibras) and professor of the Libras course and the Degree in Brazilian Sign Language and Portuguese as a Second Language (LSB/PSL) at the Institute of Letters – IL of the Department of Linguistics, Portuguese and Classical Languages – LIP of the University of Brasília (UnB).
These Professors translate the signs into LSB (Brazilian Sign Language), the primary mode of communication for the deaf community in Brazil. The professor’s invaluable contribution involves creating videos of the signs, discussing the context so the facial expressions and subtle hand signs are correct, and an ongoing conversation with COPE illustrator Mariko Jesse to ensure they are portrayed correctly in the books. This effort aims to make Brazilian Sign Language more accessible to a global audience, allowing children to learn a little about hearing disabilities and communication using LSB.
Meet Professor Lena Dominelli from the UK
Professor Lena Dominelli is the Director of the Disaster Interventions and Humanitarian Aid Programme at the University of Stirling. She was previously Co-Director at the Institute of Hazards, Risk and Resilience (2010-2016) at Durham University. Her research projects focus on climate change and extreme weather events, including drought, floods, cold snaps, wildfires, climate risk for young people; health pandemics including Covid-19; earthquakes; volcanic eruptions; disaster interventions; vulnerability and resilience; community engagement; coproduction and participatory action research. Professor Dominelli is a prolific writer with publications in social work, social policy and sociology, including several ground-breaking classics. She chairs the IASSW Committee on Disaster Interventions, Climate Change and Sustainability and represents social work at the United Nations discussions on climate change (UNFCCC COP) and Special Interest Group on Disasters, SPEDI, for the British Association of Social Workers (BASW). She is a founder member of the England Round Table on Disasters and Social Work. She has received various honours for her work. Her book, Green Social Work, changed the discourse on environmental social work to bring in a holistic approach that includes the duty of people to take care of Planet Earth by promoting alternatives to fossil fuel-based patterns of production and consumption to ensure sustainable approaches to meeting human needs. She is currently supporting Ukrainian social workers through Social Work for Peace.
Floods in English:
Meet Ms Jekulin Lipi from India!
Ms Lipi is a disaster management professional engaged in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policymaking. She is a UNDRR SEM Co-chair and Asia-Pacific Regional Focal Point for DRR, UNMGCY. Ms Lipi has worked as a consultant for several organizations on climate change and DRR including the UNDRR, UNICEF and ICCCAD. She holds a master’s degree in Disaster Management from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India.
The COPE team was honoured to meet Ms Lipi at the Youth Forum during the Global Platform for DRR in Bali last year. She was also part of this event as a panellist.
Ms Lipi has been an active part of the COPE community since 2021 highlighting our project in various DRR events. She represented COPE at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR), in 2022 and at the 8th International Water Conference, ActionAid Bangladesh, in 2023.
Ms Lipi and her colleagues are leading the initiative ‘Symphony for Future: laying a Foundation for the next climate and disaster resilience generation’, which seeks to translate our books into Assamese and Nepali to teach children in India and Nepal about natural hazards. (Keep an eye on this, more details to come later!)
Floods in Assamese:
Meet Mr Munasri from Indonesia!
Munasri is a local Indonesian Geologist who takes data directly from the field to research and explore geological resources in that country. Since 2018 he has been retired from formal work. Still, he actively shares knowledge of geosciences and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) topics with the local community, students and especially with children in disaster-prone areas.
COPE was honoured to have Mr Munasri as a panellist at our Volcanoes book launch at the Youth Forum during the Global Platform for DRR in Bali in May 2022.
Since then, Munasri has been an active part of the COPE community. He is currently translating our COPE books into Bahasa to reach more children in Indonesia and teach them how to be prepared for hazards.
Volcanoes in Bahasa:
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