Adesuwa Initiatives comprises of numerous projects initiated and implemented by Joana Adesuwa Reiterer and the EXIT team. EXIT was founded in 2006 to combat human trafficking from Africa. EXIT activities are planned and implemented through our volunteers in Vienna and Nigeria. 

 

 

 

Joana Adesuwa Reiterer was born in May 1981 in Benin City, Nigeria. She worked in the Nigerian Film industry as an actress and event producer. In 2003 she moved to Austria, where she founded the non-governmental organisation EXIT, with the aim of combating human trafficking from Africa to Europe. Since 2006 she has been collaborating with filmmakers, journalists and authors to raise awareness on the brutal reality of trafficking through films and articles. In addition, Joana chairs a diverse array of events in Austria and attends international conferences with the aim of raising awareness on violence against women. In 2007, together with two Austrian journalists, she researched on trafficking in women from Africa two Europe for the Austrian bestseller - Ware Frau. In 2008 she released her autobiography titled Die Wassergöttin and acted for the UN role-play on human trafficking together with Academy Award Winner Emma Thompson. She was nominated for the American council of Young Political Leaders and was invited to talk on the issue of trafficking at the Womens World Award congress in 2009. At the moment she presents her book and continues her campaign against human trafficking and against the torture of sorcery accused persons in Africa.

 

 

Hannah-Isabella Gasser, born June 1987 in Austria, joined EXIT in 2009 as a project coordinator, researcher and fundraiser. Through her experience working with children as a social worker in an orphanage in Ghana and with an Austrian political party dealing with women's and human rights issues, she lectures at the EXIT vocational training courses for victims of trafficking in Vienna. With an international certificate as a dance instructor and personal trainer she also works at a vital health club in Vienna.   Through diverse cultural study trips to Italy, Russia, California, Sicily, Morocco and other African countries like Mali and Senegal, Hannah-Isabella gained a broadened view of the problems women face around the globe and especially in Africa.

 

 

Andrea Nyberg is a young professional and freelance writer, active in the area of Gender and Human Rights. In 2008 she assisted the Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the preparations of the UNGIFT, one of the world's first, major international conferences on Human Trafficking. Following her experience with the OSCE, she has participated in and reported from international conferences on Human Trafficking held in Vienna, Helsinki and Brussels as well as published articles on the subject. She is currently absolving a traineeship at the European Commission, where she is working with the Commission's internal Equal Opportunities and non-Discrimination policies. Andrea was born in Helsinki, Finland, and has lived in Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom and Belgium.

 

 

Harald Reiterer, a civil engineer born 1975 in Gmund NÖ, Austria. His interest in African development against poverty increased since his last visit to Nigeria, which has led him to further research and development of strategies to combat poverty. He is the Treasurer of EXIT and remains a co-founder of the organization. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christina Schuberth was born in 1986 in Austria. She is currently studying Cultural and Social Anthropology and Spanish at the University of Vienna. She is especially interested in migration and intercultural communication. Christina joined EXIT in 2009. Since June she is engaged in the preparation of a Literacy Course that will be offered by EXIT, as well as doing translations for the organization's homepage.

 

 

Wolfgang Otter was born 1989 in Graz. In October 2008 he moved to Vienna, where he is currently studying Architecture at the Technical University and Art History at the University of Vienna. Alongside his studies he works for an architectural office and since his exchange year in Miami and political activity in Graz he's been genuinely interested in the process of Intercultural Learning and Understanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christine Wolf-Vásquez Colorado was born in 1975 in Austria. She joined EXIT in 2009 as a graphic artist and photographer. She is especially interested in fighting every kind of (sexual) discrimination. During several journeys through Colombia, Mexico, Cabo Verde, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy, Spain and Austria she realized that sexual assault and discrimination are still prevalent - even in Austria. Abusing and mistreating women is still deemed to be a trivial offense in many parts of the world. A fact that she thinks, has to be changed urgently. Starting in November 2009 she will join the social project "Longo Mai" in Costa Rica, where she is going to work with orphans for some months.

 

 

 

Katharina Baumgartner was born 1989 in Vienna. She is currently studying Mathematics, Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Vienna. Katharina is interested in politics, migration and human rights. Up to now, she has been working for a few social projects, which for example include a nursing home or the work she has been doing for the Red Cross Youth for six years. Now she is really delighted to start teaching German at EXIT.

 

 

 

 

Nandita Shroff is currently a Fashion student in the UK. She is of Indian origin but was born in Austria, May 1988 and joined EXIT, Care Club-Design in Autumn 2009. She studied Fashion Design in Cambridge at University College Falmouth in the UK. She interned at the fashion magazine "ELLE-India" in Summer 09 as the Fashion editor's and stylist's assistant. Alongside her studies she loves working with people, be it with children or working on different projects that require team work.

 

 

 

 

 

Fransisca Tan was born in March 1989 in Vienna. She joined EXIT in 2009 as a coordinator for Event Management. Currently she is studying Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Vienna. Attending one of Exit's events, she discovered her interest in the extensive issue of human trafficking and was therefore asked to join the team for several activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rudolf Bogensperger, born 1987, currently studies history and economics at the University of Vienna. He is interested in the connections between economic development and international migration.

He writes und corrects articles for EXIT projects und translates texts from English into German and vice versa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jackie-Tamika Cunningham was born 1985 in Austria. She is currently studying Development Studies and African Science at the University of Vienna. According to her jamaican-austrian background her interests reside in irregular migration, cross-cultural communication as the living conditions and problematic issuses of african diaspora Communities in Austria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Johanna Danner was born in May 1989 in Lilienfeld, Austria. She currently studies Sociology at the University of Vienna and has been working for EXIT since 2009 as an office assistant, because it gives her the opportunity to help and to work with great people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isabelle Wörndl was born in 1985 in Austria. Currently she is studying economics and business administration in Vienna. Her study specializations are development economics, french language, behavioral science and innovation. Due to her interest in working for development projects as well as her interest in fighting against every kind of human trafficking, she is pleased to join EXIT and work for different projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gabriele Gruber was born in 1990 in Stockerau, Lower-Austria. She studies Sociology at the Universität Wien. Through the common start of social scientific studies, which includes Sociology, Politics and Ethnology, she gained a varied insight to the phenomenons of social dissimilarity, migration, integration, deviation und gender problems. She now wants so help EXIT with this understanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Volker Hammer was born 1962 in the north of Germany and he studied economics and software engineering in Vienna, finishing his studies in 1990. Between 1994 and 2002 he was an Austrian Representative in international technical standardizing - groups on UN and EU - Level. Working as a team-Member and during the last two years as Convenor (Team-Coordinator), it was interesting for him to learn working in intercultural teams.

Now Volker is working as a manager in an organisation, which distributes public subsidies on special conditions to employers in Austria. He has always been interested in Africa, in the fight against slavery in the 19th century and after reading the books "Die Wassergöttin" and "Ware Frau" he is very concerned about the modern appearance of slavery/trafficking in Europe.

Volker works in the social business team for EXIT.

 

 

 

Greta is 20 years old, she's from South-Tyrol and studies German philology and economics in Vienna. She first noticed Exit through the book "Ware Frau" which quite shocked her. Because of this, she now wants join the fight against human trafficking by supporting EXIT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marlene Sayer was born in May 1989 in Linz, Upper Austria. After high school she moved to Vienna where she is currently studying international business administration. In high school she actively participated in a project called social understanding. One of the projects they worked on, which is currently still running, was raising money to help kids in Kenya finish their academic education. Now she is looking for a new project and wants to help EXIT in their endeavours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angela Heitzeneder was born and raised in Upper Austria and now lives in Vienna, where she studies International Development and is currently writing her thesis. She started to do voluntary work a few years ago with ECPAT Austria, Youth Council, where she was able to get first insights into the field of human trafficking in Austria and Europe. Later she did an internship at the UNODC, Division for Operation, Latin America and the Caribbean Section, which was a great opportunity to gain experience in all the international organized crime related issues, but also made her realize that she loves to work with people and thus decided to contact EXIT to play a part in their great work.

Angela loves to do sports, especially Yoga, to travel and to spend time with her friends. Apart from that, she regularly works at events (mainly promotion and customer support).

 

 

 

Alexandra is 35 years old and joined EXIT in June 2010 as an Event coordinator and Project Manager. Previous experiences stretch from Music company (Sales Manager) to Software industry (Marketing Manager ).

The reason why she is with EXIT is, that she heard an Interview with Joana on FM4 and read an acticle about victims of trafficking, which affected her massivley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXIT Nigeria  

Precious Ugbekile (Coordinator)

Precious Ihaza