Carlos Camilo

Chitra Aiyar

Ms. Aiyar is a staff attorney in our legal services program, providing individual representation and advocacy of behalf of African Services' clients in housing, employment and discrimination cases. Before joining African Services, she consulted at the Brennan Center for Justice on their Gulf Coast Technical Assistance Project, advocating for an equitable rebuilding process for Hurricane Katrina survivors and served as the Workers' Rights Fellow at New York Jobs with Justice. Prior to law school, Chitra worked in international development, first as a program officer at Grameen Foundation USA, promoting the Grameen Bank's microcredit peer-lending model, and then as a Fulbright Scholar, studying the impacts of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's primary education program. Chitra holds a BA in development studies from University of California at Berkeley and a JD from New York University School of Law. She speaks some Bangla, Tamil and Spanish, in addition to English.

Bakary Tandia

Bakary Tandia works as both Case Manager and Policy Advocate at African Services Committee. As a case manager, he assists clients newly diagnosed with HIV in accessing health care, housing and supportive services that enable them to regain their health and build productive lives. In this role, he facilitates a weekly support group that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for people from across the African Diaspora.

As policy advocate, Tandia works to raise awareness of public health and human rights issues in the African community and to empower newcomers to understand and protect their rights as immigrants. He has extensive experience in community organizing, coalition work and building strategic partnerships across diverse communities. He advocates on behalf of African immigrants by participating in public hearings with elected officials and policymakers and and lobbying trips to City Hall, Albany and Washington, D.C. 

Originally from Mauritania, Mr. Tandia is a human rights activist in the movement against slavery and racial discrimination. Abolition Institute Co-Founder Bakary Tandia, a native of Mauritania currently residing in New York City, is well-respected and dynamic human rights advocate with an extensive background in promoting human rights and social justice causes. He has been leading the campaign against slavery and human rights violations in Mauritania for over two decades. Bakary Tandia has spoken on human rights issues at more than 100 universities and colleges around the United States and played a leadership role in major conferences and trainings around the world. As a member of the African NGOs Coordinating Committee representing the African Diaspora during the World Conference against Racism, he developed strong relationships with human rights organizations across the continent.

He served as an Advocacy Workshop facilitator at the Human Rights Advocates Program at Columbia University (NY) helping to educate and empower human rights activists around the world.

He is a graduate of the Global Masters Program in International Affairs, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and holds bachelor degrees in International Criminal Justice and Criminology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the University of Abidjan, respectively. In addition to that, Tandia is a graduate of the Human Rights Advocates Program, Columbia University. 

He was recipient of the 2005 New American Leaders Fellowship Program jointly sponsored by Coro Leadership Center and The New York Immigration Coalition and was a participant in the Hamburg-New York 2007 IntegrationXchange 2007, a program jointly sponsored through DCS by the U.S. State Department and the Koeberg Foundation, Germany.

Besides Soninke his native language, Tandia speaks Fulani/Pulaar, English and French.

Andrea Panjwani

Ms. Panjwani is the supervising attorney overseeing African Services' legal services programs, which advocate for the legal rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, including people living with HIV. Prior to joining African Services, she was a clinical instructor/adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School in a program that served low- and middle-income senior citizens, many of whom were immigrants. Prior to that, Andrea was a staff attorney at Legal Services of Greater Miami for seven years representing low-income individuals in civil rights, housing, relationship violence, and family/dependency law matters. She has written a quarterly housing discrimination commentary for the ABA's Journal of Affordable Housing, served as Vice-President of the Miami Coalition for the Homeless and as Vice-President of the Stanley Meyers Community Health Center. Andrea is a graduate of Fordham Law School and worked previously in the Congo where she learned conversational French.