Anj Handa

Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers, a dynamic movement of changemakers who speak up for women’s rights

Anj Handa is the Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers, an inclusive community of changemakers who stand for fairness and safety for women. Recognised in Forbes as one of the ‘10 Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazers You Need to Get Familiar With’. Anj is a keynote speaker and an authority on Good Governance and Inclusive Leadership.

Her focus is on creating inclusive cultures and positive social change: how to get and keep people engaged with your organisation’s mission. With expertise in UK leadership and governance practice and as a professional lobbyist, Anj has a wealth of knowledge to share. Multilingual, she also brings a global perspective from working in and with international teams and on diplomatic assignments.

In her talks, Anj draws on her own experiences when speaking about diversity, equity, and inclusion in leadership and governance, covering little-explored themes such as psychological safety, emotional correctness, and healthy boundaries.

It was in 2014 that Anj’s life changed when she was introduced to asylum-seeker Afusat Saliu and her two daughters. Anj led a high-profile campaign on their claim for asylum based on the risk of Female Genital Mutilation to the little girls in Nigeria, pulling together a top legal team and launching a Change.org petition which gathered 126,500 signatures.

The campaign attracted attention from the global media, MPs and business leaders such as Sir Richard Branson. Unfortunately, the family was deported, so she mobilised her supporters through the campaign platform to fundraise, securing accommodation and schooling for the girls for a full year.

Anj learned that by gathering professional, motivated people together, it’s possible to make an impact on the lives of others on a massive scale which led her to create Inspiring Women Changemakers. She now teaches individuals and organisations how to get and keep people on board with their mission.

Her global change-making work has been featured in Generation Share by Benita Matofska and Sophie Sheinwald, a visual storybook featuring 200 global changemakers, the largest collection of changemaker stories. Her work on Female Genital Mutilation and asylum has been included in Eradicating FGM in the UK by Guardian writer Hillary Burrage, and Refugee Tales by Comma Press.

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