Khadija Gbla

She is a single mum, carer, black, non-binary, queer, neurodivergent, and disabled award-winning human rights activist, model, inspirational speaker, writer and mentor. She has displayed great courage and determination in achieving her aspirations of giving women, youth and minority groups a voice at a local, state and international level. Khadija utilises her powerful and inspired voice to advocate for structural change and everyday simple actions we can all take to achieve true equality and inclusion for all people.

Khadija Gbla was born in Sierra Leone, spent her youth in Gambia, and, as a teenager, put down roots in Australia. Khadija was just three years old when the war broke out in her country, Sierra Leone and ten years later they attained refugee status and resettled in Adelaide. Khadija provides advocacy, training, coaching, mentoring, and speaking on domestic and family violence, sexual health, racism, FGM, human rights, gender equality, intersectionality, inclusion and diversity, bias, mental health, disability, NDIS, migrants and refugees and cultural diversity and so much more through her cultural consultancy, Khadija Gbla Cultural Consultancy.

Khadija is the lead voice and campaigner on Female Genital Mutilation in Australia. She runs a not-for-profit organisation, Ending Female Genital Mutilation Australia, which protects Australian girls from FGM and supports survivors of FGM. Khadija provides training for professionals, advocacy and community education for practising communities in Australia. Khadija is also a TEDx speaker with nearly 3 Million views on her talk, “My Mother’s Strange Definition of Empowerment”.