MERA was born from the shared vision of three young changemakers who saw the urgent need to stand with Middle Eastern refugees and underserved communities. What unites our founders—Salma Hakam, Bilal Azzam, and Tala Jazairi—is not only a passion for service, but also deeply personal stories rooted in family, heritage, and lived experience.

For Bilal, family across the world represented both love and longing. Growing up separated from relatives, he carried with him the weight of distance and the desire to bridge that gap through service. His experience planted the seeds for MERA’s work in connecting communities, no matter how scattered by borders.

For Tala, the loss of her grandmother’s memory—and with it, the stories of her family’s life in Gaza—left her searching for ways to honor her heritage. She witnessed how the erasure of history can silence entire communities, and she committed herself to ensuring that refugee stories and struggles would never be forgotten. MERA became a way to forge a future where those voices are amplified and protected.

For Salma, the path began with questioning “deservingness” in public health: who receives care, and who is left behind. As the daughter of Egyptian immigrants, she saw firsthand how inequities disproportionately harm Middle Eastern, Muslim, and other marginalized communities. Her journey from pre-med student to public health advocate solidified in Kenya, where she learned the power of community health. MERA became the platform for her to channel that vision into sustainable change.

What began as conversations between friends at UNC-Chapel Hill soon transformed into something much larger. In 2022, MERA became a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit—youth-led, equity-driven, and deeply committed to health literacy and humanitarian aid. MERA’s work has always been guided by the personal roots of its founders and the resilience of the communities it serves.

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