Awa Krubally is a women’s rights activist and a Board Member at ‘Advocacy for Human Rights and Justice’ in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She is also a Member of the Women in Liberation and Leadership (WILL) where she serves as a Gender Justice Coordinator.
Awa obtained her Master of Business Administration in International Trade (MBA) and is currently pursuing a second Master’s (MSc) in Sustainability and Diplomacy at the Grenoble Ecole de Management in France. She has extensive experience in the area of Gender Justice and advocacy for the rights of women, girls and marginalised communities both in Europe and Africa. In recognition of her work with women and children in communities, she was recognized by the African Center for Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) as a human rights defender in Africa.
In 2023, she received an award for Gender Justice from the USAID and American Bar Association as a Woman of Courage.
In the same year 2023, she was awarded as a Human Rights Activist for The Gambia by the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights in Arusha Tanzania.
In 2022, Awa Krubally participated in a nationwide tour in The Gambia to spread the CEDAW report that took place in Geneva in 2022. She is a mental health specialist and has provided mental health therapy to most people which includes her participation in giving safe spaces to victims of former president Yahya Jammeh’s regime especially to the vulnerable women and girls who didn’t have the priviledge to speak during the TRRC.
She took part in the delivering of the Government White Paper post TRRC across the nation with National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of The Gambia.
Awa is a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). She shared her story with LamToro News Managing Editor Assan Sallah during a visit to Germany recently. She also disclosed the reason why she became an activist.
The young gender activist is becoming a rising star, a role model and an exemplary figure both locally and internationally. She is a woman of dignity and her level of professionalism is quite impressive. Her achievements over the years as a young activist speak a lot about her vision and mission towards fighting for gender justice. She has participated in a lot of national and international events, conferences and project. She worked as a Refugee Consultant at the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees in Rabat, Morocco from 2019-2020; she was later appointed as Operations and Gender Unit Assistant from January 2022 – July 2022 at the United Nations Populations Fund in Bakau, Gambia.
Awa Krubally was later appointed as Gender Justice Coordinator of the NGO Women in Liberation and Leadership (WILL) located in Brusubi, The Gambia under the leadership of her mentor Dr. Fatou Baldeh (MBE) from July 2022 – January 2023. She also served as Project Manager at the Agence de Gestion Enterprise Traduction in Dakar, Senegal from February 2023 – January 2024. She then picked up another job at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bakau, The Gambia as Building Manager since January 2024.
Below is a verbatim narration of her experience as a survivor of FGM.
“I was 5 years-old when we went to a family member’s house in The Gambia. Some people were dancing, some people were singing, but I didn’t know what was happening. Nobody told us ‘this is what is going to happen to you’. We were put in a line, one person after the other. There were at least twenty of us. It was just outside, they put up some wrappers to cover and it was done on the floor. I remember seeing whoever went first came out screaming. You can imagine how traumatic that was.
I was pinned down and I was cut. We were all cut in the same setting, without medication, probably using the same equipment as well. We were all kept in this house after the cutting, in a dark room for maybe about two weeks until we healed. In that room we were taught songs about being a woman, about being a girl, about how you behave.
Every morning they put warm water with salt and herbs in a pan, and we were forced to sit on it. That is something that was traumatising for a very long time. Not even the cutting, but every morning having to soak because you were cut. It’s raw and sore. That’s what they believe would support you not to have an infection. For many years that was what stuck in my head, sitting on that every morning, and screaming at night. We had to go through that until we were healed. Just imagine that pain.
When we were ready, they had a big ceremony for us. Our families brought us gifts, and we had a party at the end and that was it. Then we never spoke about what happened to us there. You’d never hear anybody talk about it again, unless other girls go through FGM and then you are brought in as a mentor.
It still happens in that way today in The Gambia. There are reports that people sometimes go to healthcare professionals, but generally, it’s not medicalised.
This inspired me to be an activist against FGM and working with WILL gave me the pathway to establish a career to fight against FGM in all the communities in The Gambia.”
