A Decade of Connection and Sisterhood: My Journey with World Pulse

2011: Joining World Pulse

I joined the global movement of World Pulse in 2011, under the leadership of Jensine Larsen, without fully understanding how my voice, confidence, and belonging to a global sisterhood of women leaders would be impacted. I had been living and working in Somalia at the time, a country characterized by words such as crisis, conflict, fragility, and humanitarian needs. I had seen much of this reality, but I knew there was another story to tell. I had seen women working to bring about change in Somalia through community mobilization, girls' empowerment, peacebuilding, and visioning a different future. I knew that these stories needed to be heard around the world. World Pulse became the place where I could begin telling them.

Finding a Global Sisterhood of Women

Initially, as I set up my profile, I was surprised by the diversity of women writers from all over the world—women from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, all writing from a very personal place about struggles, triumphs, and victories. For the first time, I was part of a global conversation about women’s rights, justice, and women’s leadership. The women were very welcoming and wrote words of encouragement on my posts. We followed each other and also intearacted via social media platforms.

Voices of Our Future Correspondent (VoF)

Through the journalism and leadership programs offered by World Pulse, I became a Voices of Our Future Correspondent, a program that taught women how to use storytelling as a means of social change. I found out how powerful digital storytelling could be—a blog entry written from Garowe could reach women in Nigeria, Brazil, India, and Canada. Through my writing, I shared stories about the hopes, challenges, and resilience of Somali women. I highlighted the importance of women’s leadership in rebuilding Somalia and emphasized that women must be given the opportunity to shape the country’s future.

15 Years later I still find myself logging onto the World Pulse website and reading the powerfull stories women from all over the world post on their spaces - stories of resilience in conflict, courage in standing up against injustice, perseverance in community-building, and hope in creating more equal and peaceful societies. They are stories about women who advocate for education, protect human rights, and rebuild communities in the face of overwhelming adversity. But they are also stories that remind us that women’s voices, when they speak on their own behalf, bring light to issues that might otherwise go unseen and mobilize us all towards action.

Planting Seeds for the Future

My stories focused not only on difficulties but also on the strength and potential of Somali women to create positive change. I also explored how digital technologies and online platforms could expand educational opportunities for girls and connect women in Somalia to global knowledge networks. We created a small Worldpulse Somalia group and even organised a small meetup.

Over the years, I continued engaging with the global community of women on Worldpulse strengthened my confidence as a writer and advocate. The encouragement and solidarity I received from women across different countries helped me see storytelling as a collective act that connects struggles and movements for gender equality worldwide. This experience influenced my later work in amplifying Somali women’s voices in research, policy, and storytelling. Ultimately, it reinforced my belief that when women tell their own stories, they challenge stereotypes, reclaim their narratives, and contribute to meaningful social change.

Somali Gender Hub

This experience also helped shape my later work in amplifying Somali women’s voices in research, policy, and storytelling. Inspired by these global connections and the importance of knowledge sharing, I contributed to initiatives that support women’s leadership and research, including the creation of the Somali Gender Hub (https://somaligenderhub.org), a community of practice that empowers Somali women by providing tools to connect, collaborate, and support each other. It drives, informs, and advocates for gender equality through research, hosting conferences, and fighting for rights. The hub addresses critical issues like FGM and gender-based violence (GBV) while promoting women's voices.