Fatima Jibrell (Faadumo Jibriil)

Who is she?

Fatima Jibrell is a Somali-American environmental activist (Wikipedia, Fatima Jibrell). She co-founded the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization, known as Horn Relief and now as Adeso, and was its executive director (same source). She also co-founded Sun Fire Cooking and helped create the Women's Coalition for Peace (same source).

Early life

She was born on 30 December 1947 in Sanaag, to a nomadic family (Wikipedia). She went to a British boarding school until 16, then joined her father, a merchant seaman, in New York (same source). She graduated from Temple High School (same source).

In 1969 she returned to Somalia and worked for the government (Wikipedia). She married Abdurahman Mohamoud Ali, a diplomat, and began university in Damascus while the family was posted in Iraq (same source). After a move to the United States in 1981 she finished a BA in English and a master's in social work at the University of Connecticut (same source). See Somalis in the United States.

Horn Relief

After the civil war began in 1991, she co-founded Horn Relief with her husband and family friends (Wikipedia). It changed its name to Adeso in 2012 (same source). She retired as executive director in 2006 and stayed on its board (same source).

The charcoal campaign

Old acacia trees in north-eastern Somalia, some up to 500 years old, were being cut for charcoal sold to the Arabian Peninsula (Wikipedia). Horn Relief trained young people to teach the public about the damage (same source). In 1999 it organised a peace march in Puntland against the "charcoal wars" (same source). In 2000 the Puntland government banned charcoal exports, and Wikipedia reports an 80% fall in exports after that (same source). See Puntland.

Through Sun Fire Cooking she worked to bring solar cookers to Somalia, to cut the use of charcoal (Wikipedia). In 2008 she wrote and co-produced the short film Charcoal Traffic (same source). In 2011 she published Peace and Milk: Scenes of Northern Somalia, a photo book, with James Lindsay (same source).

Awards

She received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002 (Wikipedia). In 2008 she won the National Geographic Society/Buffett Foundation Award for Leadership in Conservation (same source).

In short

A Somali-American campaigner who co-founded Horn Relief and worked to end the charcoal trade in north-eastern Somalia.