Ifrah Ahmed

I frah Ahmed, one of the World’s top FGM/C eradication advocates and activists. She received many humanitarian awards for her diligent work and relentless campaigns to end FGM/C around the world. The Ifrah Foundation was founded by Ifrah Ahmed in 2010 to eliminate FGM in East Africa, specifically Somalia. Having fled the Somali civil war, Ifrah Ahmed landed in Dublin, Ireland, 2006 to begin a new life in Diaspora from one of the most intractable conflicts in the African continent. Ifrah quickly found traction in social activism, fighting for the rights of new communities in Ireland. In her early days of community mobilization, Ifrah worked as an independent advocate engaging policy makers, rights groups and mainstream organizations. She demonstrated her ability to work as a highly motivated social and community worker involved in many community projects and non-governmental organizations from the Irish Refugee Council, The Africa Centre and Spirasi (support to survivors of torture) to intergovernmental organizations such as UNFPA, UNICEF and Amnesty International.

Ifrah’s powerful advocacy on behalf of survivors of FGM, youth development and humanitarian relief in East Africa continues to receive coverage in Irish and European media including in Time Magazine, Newsweek, Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Times (UK), The Independent (UK), BBC (UK & World Service), Al-Jeezera, Irish Times, The Sunday Business Post, amongst others. In the public arena, Ifrah regularly organizes and presents at major conferences including the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM and International Women’s Days at the UN and World Bank. She was awarded Irish International Person of the Year in 2018.

Since 2014, Ifrah has, through her Nongovernmental Organization Ifrah Foundation, worked in Somalia developing a range of programs tackling GBV and FGM/C. Ifrah was appointed Gender Advisor to the Prime Minister in Somalia in March 2016. Extensive research, pilot programmers and an understanding of what’s effective in the Somali, Ifrah’s work there spans three key areas from advocacy to awareness rising to community empowerment. Building on this, Ifrah Foundation launched its Dear Daughter Campaign, in collaboration with UNFPA, in September 2021 and is working across each pillar to ensure that FGM is reduced and focus sustained on the issue in Somalia. In 2023, she continued her efforts, which makes her very influential person who is a role model for many young girls who want to change a lot in the society. Ifrah Ahmed has promised many times that she will put more effort in supporting girls and that her foundation will continue to work on social issues affecting girls and women at large.