Rotary Club of Port Nicholson Goal Setter Award (2016)
Kiwibank Local Hero Medal (2025)
Hutt City Civic Honour (2025)
Daniel Gamboa is a Colombian-born New Zealand refugee rights advocate and non-profit executive. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of the New Zealand National Refugee Youth Council. In 2025, he became a member of UNHCR Refugee Advisory Group to the Consultations on Resettlement and Complimentary Pathways.
Gamboa fled Colombia with his mother during the Colombian armed conflict and lived as a refugee in Ecuador before being resettled in New Zealand in 2012 under the country's refugee quota programme. He subsequently became involved in refugee youth advocacy, working nationally and internationally to promote refugee participation in resettlement policy and decision making.
In 2025, Gamboa received a Kiwibank Local Hero medal for his contributions to refugee youth leadership in New Zealand. He also received a Hutt City Civic Honour in the youth activities category for his voluntary contributions to the Lower Hutt community and was named a semi-finalist for the Young New Zealander of the Year Award.
Early life, displacement and resettlement
Gamboa was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and raised by his mother, Carmenza Salazar, and extended family. His mother operated a restaurant called La Barra. During the Colombian armed conflict, local rebel groups demanded protection payments from businesses, including his mother's restaurant. When members of an armed group demanded that she also store weapons on the premises, she refused. They subsequently threatened to kill Gamboa, who was 12 years old, prompting his mother to flee with him to Ecuador.
Gamboa spent the following six years in Ecuador, where he and his mother obtained refugee status. They faced discrimination because of their Colombian nationality. Gamboa experienced bullying at school, while his mother struggled to find employment. In 2012, UNHCR referred their case to New Zealand for resettlement. Following consideration by New Zealand immigration authorities, they were accepted for resettlement under the country's refugee quota programme.
In June 2012, Gamboa and his mother arrived in New Zealand, where they initially stayed at the Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre in Auckland. Neither spoke English when they arrived. They were then resettled in Lower Hutt, where they began rebuilding their lives.
In October 2014, Gamboa was featured in an exhibition called 'World War I: A Contemporary Conversation' at the National Library of New Zealand. The exhibition commemorated the centenary of the first World War and brought together historical wartime records and contemporary experiences of conflict, featuring Gamboa's story of displacement.
Education
Following his resettlement in New Zealand in 2012, Gamboa attended Naenae College in Lower Hutt, where he later worked as a bilingual tutor.
He subsequently attended Victoria University of Wellington, graduating in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Development Studies. He was the first member of his family to earn a university degree.
Career and advocacy
Gamboa first became involved in refugee advocacy through the Office of Ethnic Communities' Young Leaders Programme. He went on to advocate for greater public understanding of refugees and challenge stereotypes about their experiences in New Zealand. He participated in the New Zealand Red Cross's Get to Know Me campaign and ActionStation's Beyond Labels campaign .
Through his advocacy, Gamboa became increasingly aware of the challenges facing refugee-background young people and the lack of youth-led representation. In response, he co-founded the New Zealand National Refugee Youth Council in 2015. He aimed to create an organisation where young people could support one another and have a greater voice in resettlement matters. He subsequently served as the Council's president.
Gamboa was selected by the New Zealand Red Cross to represent refugee youth at the 2016 Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement in Geneva, Switzerland. While in Geneva, he also spoke at the UNHCR's Global NGO Consultations, advocating for greater refugee participation in policy making and decision making. Since then, he has represented New Zealand and spoken at various international forums on refugee resettlement and advocacy. He was selected to participate in the Global Youth Summit organised by Global Changemakers in Switzerland in 2017.
Gamboa worked in the New Zealand public service as a senior advisor for diversity and engagement at the Office of Ethnic Communities , and later as a senior engagement advisor for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
In 2023, Gamboa was appointed the full time chief executive officer of the New Zealand National Refugee Youth Council. Through his leadership, advocacy and development of youth initiatives, he has supported more than 7,000 refugee-background young people and raised over NZ$500,000 for refugee youth initiatives.
Gamboa joined the Refugee Advisory Group to the Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways in 2025, which advises UNHCR and participating governments on refugee resettlement and complementary pathways. At the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review in Geneva in December 2025, he announced the Refugee Advisory Group's first pledge. Committing the group to providing technical input into CRCP policies, strengthening meaningful refugee participation and supporting governments in implementing the resettlement and complementary pathway pledges.
Honours, awards and public appointments
Gamboa received the Rotary Club of Port Nicholson's 2016 Goal Setter Award in recognition of his efforts to overcome adversity while pursuing tertiary education and contributing to his community
In 2025, Gamboa received a Kiwibank Local Hero Medal in recognition of his work supporting refugee-background young people and creating leadership opportunities in New Zealand. He was also named a semi-finalist for the 2025 University of Canterbury Young New Zealander of the Year Award. In August of the same year, he received a Civic Honour Award in the Youth Activities category from Hutt City Council for his voluntary contributions to the Lower Hutt community.
He was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace at the Wellington District Court in May 2023.
Theatre and TV appearances
In 2015, Gamboa starred in an episode of the New Zealand documentary television series 'Both Worlds', which explored the lives of young New Zealanders navigating cultural identity and belonging. The episode followed Gamboa's efforts to reconnect with Wellington's Colombian community through organising a traditional Colombian barbecue.
Gamboa acted in Nassim Soleimanpour's 'White Rabbit, Red Rabbit' at Wellington's BATS Theatre in 2017. He later produced a Wellington staging of the same play featuring performers from refugee-backgrounds as part of World Refugee Week.
Gamboa presented an episode of TVNZ1 documentary series 'Neighbourhood' in 2017, which explored the cultural diversity of New Zealand communities through the perspectives of local presenters. The episode featured Gamboa introducing viewers to the people and communities of Lower Hutt.
