Biography

As a former refugee from childhood, Jamila Ahmed was drawn to serve her community through advocacy.

She started at the age of 12 advocating for medical resettlement for her father, who passed away after a year of battling cancer. Jamila then started advocating for her education as her mother struggled to make ends meet. She then advocated for other youth refugees who faced similar struggles as well as represented the urban refugee council to advocate for Resettlement.

Jamila arrived in Canada in the year 2008 and continued following her passion in the social service field through volunteering. The personal has always been the political for Ms. Ahmed, which led her to study Social Work at Carleton University while being a mother of three wonderful children.

Currently, Jamila is a registered social worker and a Clinical Youth Outreach Worker (CYOW) at Jaku Konbit, through the Provincial Youth Outreach Worker (YOW) Program. As a Black CYOW, Jamila is mandated to work with African Caribbean Black Canadian (ACBC) youth, ages 12-25, and their families in providing short term counseling and connecting them to a variety of resources within the city of Ottawa.