Hamda Ahmed, an intercultural support worker with the Winnipeg School Division, focuses on community engagement and newcomer support by helping individuals and families navigate settlement, education, and community services, driven by human dignity, equity, and inclusion. She explains that her commitment to human rights began in childhood after witnessing social inequality, and that community engagement became her way to amplify marginalized voices, especially newcomers, women, and youth. Originally from Somaliland, she describes her newcomer journey as shaped by seeking safety and opportunity, while facing challenges like adapting to a new culture, rebuilding networks, and navigating unfamiliar systems, yet feeling fortunate to continue her long-standing work on women’s and children’s rights.

Ahmed outlines major human rights concerns in Somaliland, including the persistence of FGM and barriers to women’s political participation within a clan-based system, and notes the added challenge of being labeled as “Western-influenced” when advocating from abroad. She argues that media often emphasizes political angles while overlooking personal sacrifices and the everyday human rights impacts of excluding women from decision-making, and she describes efforts to train more women to shift social media narratives with “true stories” on the ground. She shares pride in seeing newcomers she supported return to school and become educational assistants, and highlights how representation in schools helps children feel supported by someone who looks like them. Finally, she discusses the Sirad (Shirad) Initiative, an online platform started with her lawyer sister to provide basic human rights training and empowerment for young women, including workplace rights and encouragement to pursue education and leadership; Ahmed supports the initiative with technical work such as report writing, goal-setting, and strategy development.