isata kabia
At age 16, Isata Kabia went on a life-changing vacation to her home country of Sierra Leone, having left when she was eight years old. During that visit, she was touched by the generosity of Sierra Leoneans and their willingness to share whatever little they had. That experience of selfless generosity would go on to have a significant impact on her life, shaping her worldview and driving her towards a life of public service.
Isata’s involvement in public service began as a teenager in high school, where she worked to support girls at her former primary school in Sierra Leone by providing learning materials and working to establish a community library in her hometown. In 1998, while living in the United States, Isata founded ‘African Women of Substance,’ an organization that protested in front of the White House, calling for international support to end the civil war in Sierra Leone. African Women of Substance also raised funds through beauty pageants to support two orphanages in Freetown, highlighting the plight of children during Sierra Leone’s civil war. Isata’s passion and commitment to Sierra Leone would result in her leading the Sierra Leone Network, a group of Sierra Leoneans focusing on development advocacy, health, education, and investment promotion.
When Isata Kabia returned to Sierra Leone in 2008, she did not expect to contest for public office to represent communities in her home district in 2012. She received the highest number of votes nationally and became the first female Member of Parliament in a constituency that was averse to female leadership. As an MP, she prioritized community health and educational promotion, both key areas that disproportionately affect women and girls.
In 2016, Madam Isata Kabia was appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, where she was placed in charge of Sierra Leone’s diplomatic missions abroad, diaspora affairs, parliamentary relations and operations, and gender affairs. Two years later, she was appointed Minister of Social Welfare, Gender, and Children’s Affairs.
Isata Kabia is today the Founding Director of Voice of Women Africa, an organization that is working to build a cadre of women who believe in themselves and in each other. The organization promotes women’s participation in politics as a way of increasing the number of women decision-makers in order to engender peace, prosperity, greater freedoms, and expansion of rights in Sierra Leone. Voice of Women Africa is currently working to establish local country chapters of this vibrant network of women leaders across Sierra Leone.
The organization’s social enterprise, AFRiLOSOPHY, established in 2015, provides training in manufacturing and financial management to women and their small businesses. At the heart of AFRiLOSOPHY’s program is the understanding that women’s empowerment and leadership cannot be divorced from their economic strength.
The financial management and enterprise development training that AFRiLOSOPHY offers is contributing positively toward the realization of that goal. The aim is to create innovative financing for women-owned businesses and to support startups that create opportunities for economic growth.
Isata Kabia’s political, social, and economic endeavors in Sierra Leone are all geared toward creating change by working collectively with other women for positive change; as the African proverb goes – “it takes a whole village.” Ms. Kabia is dedicated to contributing to Sierra Leone’s continued development through the uplifting of women and girls across the country.