Fatima Jibrell
| Fatima Jibrell فاطمة جبريل |
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|---|---|
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| Born |
December 30, 1947 Somalia |
| Alma mater | University of Connecticut, University of Damascus |
| Occupation | environmental activist, filmmaker |
Fatima Jibrell (Somali: Fadumo Jibriil, Arabic: فاطمة جبريل, December 30, 1947-) is a Somali-American environmental activist. She was the co-founder and Executive Director of the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization (now Adeso), co-founder of Sun Fire Cooking, and was instrumental in the creation of the Women's Coalition for Peace.
Jibrell was born on December 30, 1947, in Somalia to a nomadic family. Her father was a merchant marine who settled in New York City. As a child in Somalia, she attended a British boarding school until the age of 16, when she left the country to join her father in the United States. There, Jibrell graduated from high school.
In 1969, she returned to Somalia and worked for the government, whereafter she married her husband, Abdulrahman Mohamoud Ali, a diplomat. While she and her family were stationed in Iraq, Jibrell began undergraduate studies at the University of Damascus in nearby Syria. In 1981, her husband was transferred to the U.S., where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in English. She eventually went on to pursue a Master's in Social Work from the University of Connecticut. While living in the U.S., Jibrell and her husband raised five daughters. She also became an American citizen.
Spurred on by the civil war in Somalia that began in 1991, Jibrell along with her husband and family friends co-founded the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization, colloquially referred to as Horn Relief, a non-governmental organization (NGO) for which she served as the Executive Director. In 2012, Horn Relief officially changed its name to Adeso. While Jibrell retired as Executive Director in 2002, she maintains a role on the organization's Board of Directors and in its Somalia programs. Adeso describes its mission as grassroots level work aimed at uplifting local communities.
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