Ifham Hussain has bagged Excellent Leadership Award

Ifham Hussain has bagged Excellent Leadership Award

• December 01, 2021

Ifham Hussain has spent her entire life devoted to children and ensuring every child has access to education. During 1993, she blossomed in her role as an assistant teacher for middle schoolers and thrived in her field, working her way to eventually getting promoted to being a Supervisor at Ghiyasuddin School. During her years in the Education field, she began noticing that there were certain children that weren’t getting catered to by the mainstream education system. With this in mind she completed a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood and Special Education and then a Master’s in the same field from University of Queensland. In 2013, she became the Managing Director at Maldives Autism Association and held that position until 2019, when she was appointed as the Minister of State for Gender, Family and Social Services. 

Her aim has always been to help children, especially children with disabilities focusing on Autism Spectrum Disorder as these children often fall through the cracks in the mainstream education system. She has been advocating for the rights of disabled children and has travelled across the Maldives and overseas to train teachers for inclusive learning as well as create awareness on disabilities. She also assists parents in various ways such as emotional support as well as hands on teaching them how to interact with children with disabilities and help parents manage their situations. Her empathy for parents also comes from her own personal experience of having a son with autism, which further drives her passion to help children and educate parents. The locals know her as ‘Autism Ifham’ as she works closely with the media to raise awareness about disabled children and their needs, hosts fundraisers, events and interactive activities to engage the public. Her goal is to ensure that no child goes without being seen or heard.

Currently as the Minister of State for Gender, Family and Social Services, she has taken the responsibility to lead the Disability Rights and Wellbeing Division. The Division reaches over 9000 people with disabilities across the Maldives. She also coordinates with donor companies, relevant organizations, state owned companies and government officials to assist in providing support such as affordable medication, assistive devices, enabling employment opportunities and health and therapeutic services for people with disabilities. Apart from her contributions professionally, she also gives her personal time and effort to facilitate and cater the needs of PWDs in the community and to make their lives better.

Over the years she has garnered recognition both locally and internationally for her philanthropy. Ms. Ifham has accomplished and received many awards in recognition for her services and contributions for people with disabilities. These include awards by the government such as “Disability Award” and “Rehendhi Award. Ms. Ifham has also received a number of International Awards such as, “Princess Haya for special education” under the category “Outstanding Director General”, Women in Management - Maldives award, Woman with a Cause, International Award - Women in Management top 50 professional and Career Award – Srilanka. Maldives Autism Association has also received National awards for outstanding performance under the able leadership of Ms. Ifham Hussain. 

Every nomination or win is an extremely humbling experience that she shares with everyone she helps. She is honoured to receive the award for Women Icon powered by Times Women and hopes to contribute towards making a difference in the lives of people with disability throughout the Maldives and internationally as well. Ms Ifham hopes to use this platform as a stepping stone towards paving a path for people with disabilities towards inclusion and participation in the community.

In the future, Ifham Hussain hopes to minimize the gap in the services and accessibility between the capital, Male’ and other local islands in the country. She wishes to establish a functioning inclusive social system in the community where people with disabilities can  easily get access to any support according to their needs. Her vision is to establish the first ever Disability Management and Rehabilitation Centre in the Maldives.