Esenam Amuzu | Programs Consultant

Esenam Amuzu is a youth advocate with over 10 years’ experience in the areas of adolescent and youth reproductive health, maternal health, family planning, maternal and new born health, gender and meaningful youth engagement. She has a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the Ghana Institute of journalism and a Masters in Gender, Peace and Security from the KAIPTC. She also has experience working on Social and Behaviour Change Communication and Humanitarian context especially refugees.

Esenam has worked and volunteered with several organizations both at the grassroot, local, national and international levels. Her passion in SRHR saw her serving as a member of the Youth Advisory Board of the Ghana SRHR Alliance. She has worked and volunteered with relevant organizations like UNFPA GHANA where she was a Youth Leaders Fellow,  Curious Minds (a children and youth advocacy NGO), co led of My Teen Life, a project on which she mentors and educates girls on their SRHR, IPAS, UNAIDS and the Plan Parenthood Association of Ghana where she volunteers as a mentor on for their Girl Boss Mentor project. 

Esenam is 2018 Women Deliver Young Leader and European Development Days Young Leader 2018.

Maame Serwaa-Gyamfi | Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Consultant

Maame Serwaa- Gyamfi is a Development Worker and Gender Advocate with almost a decade of experience in Programming and progressive working experience in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. She has extensive experience and an in-depth understanding of coordinating projects through the application of knowledge in proposal development, project/program planning, design, implementation and management, and budgeting.

Maame has over the years worked with stakeholders and partners such as Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, The Department of Social Welfare and Community Development and other private institutions in Ghana. She has also worked on projects for both local and international NGOs. She has implemented projects funded by international agencies and NGOs such as UNFPA, UNAIDS, USAID, UKAID, FHI 360, and UNESCO among others. 

Maame loves to drive social change by working with and for the country's most marginalized, including, children, women and young people, female sex workers, teenage mothers, young people in detention, and people with disabilities including people with mental health conditions, among others.

Aurelia Naa Adjeley Sowah-Mensah | Programs Consultant

Aurelia Naa Adjeley Sowah-Mensah is Youth Advocate with over 8 years’ experience in the field. She has a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the Ghana Institute of journalism, a qualification she’s used in her advocacy work centring on Communication for Development and Social and Behaviour Change Communication. 

Aurelia is passionate about young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), a passion that had led her into working and volunteering with relevant organizations like Marie Stopes Ghana where she was a You Advisory Board Member, Curious Minds (a children and youth advocacy NGO), My Teen Life, a project on which she mentors and educates girls on their SRHR, ad Plan Parenthood Association of Ghana where she volunteers as a mentor on for their Girl Boss Mentor project. 

Her work in gender equality and SRHR advocacy has earned her opportunities to represent women and youth voices on several national and international platforms speaking on panels and helping plan sessions and events. Aside being a 2018 Women Deliver Young Leader, Aurelia has been an active participant of the Women Deliver conference, and the International Conference on Family Planning in Kigali Rwanda and Pattaya Thailand respectively. Aurlia hopes to keep working towards achieving a world where young people are able to make informed decision about their sexual and reproductive health and have access to needed SRHR services. 

Abena Benewaa Fosu

Abena Benewaa Fosu | Founder and Executive Director

Abena Benewaa is a Feminist Activist, a Menstrual Health and Media Development professional with over 10yrs of experience working in social justice for women and girls, specifically women and girl's sexual & reproductive health and rights and socio-economic and political meaningful inclusion. Benewaa is passionate about helping achieve a world where women and girls live in dignity, are able to action their rights and realise their fullest potential without any gender-based discriminations. 

At the age of 18 she volunteered with Curious Minds, a youth advocacy NGO for 9 years before going on to become staff at the organization. This introduction to youth advocacy lead her to work with organizations like Building Bridges (a Dutch youth organization) The African Women’s Development Fund, Deutse Welle Akademie Ghana, and The Cova Project (an Australian non-profit).

In 2015 during her National Service, Benewaa founded Yebetumi not as an organization but a project targeted at mentoring rural girls and significantly improving the lives and livelihoods of women in girls in rural Ghana. As project lead, Yebetumi implemented several activities in the Central, Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions.

Benewaa is an active member of Ghana's online feminist community, using her voice and platforms to normalise otherwise taboo conversations especially around women's sexual and reproductive health.

Lilly Oseyda Jay | Programs Consultant

Lilly has over a decade’s experience in development work in the field of social development, children, youth and women’s rights advocacy. She has a wide range of experience in organising and facilitating trainings, and has trained and mentored several young girls in and out of school on various areas including Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), financial literacy and other national and global issues of development.  

Lilly served on the Youth Advisory Panel of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which is a technical advisory team to the organization in the implementation of their programmes between 2010 to 2012. From 2010 to 2008, Lilly served as the Ghana News desk reporter for the Global Press Journal (GPJ) which uses journalism as a development tool to educate and empower women to ignite social change.

Lilly has previously worked with ActionAid Ghana as the Artistic Activism Project Coordinator, Youth Bridge Foundation as the Communications Officer, Curious Minds as the Corporate Affairs and Communications Manager, and Plan Ghana as the Community Facilitator on the Rights of the Child project.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from the Catholic Institute of Business and Technology and a master’s degree in Development Management from the Kwame Nkrumah university of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Lilly is a member of the Masminyane Young Feminist and a fellow with the Ghanaian Women’s Social Leadership Program (GWSLP).

Our Partners

Board of Directors

  • Lydia Mclean

    Lydia Maclean is the Communications Specialist at the African Women’s Development Fund and leads in developing and maintaining external narratives relating to the issues and achievements of African women and their organisations in feminist philanthropy. Prior to joining AWDF, she worked with A-Plus Life Assurance (Now Exceed Life Assurance) as Customer Service and Public Relations Manager where she led in the branding and launch of the organisation. She also previously served as Communications Manager with the Ghana Red Cross Society.

    Lydia holds a Masters in International Development from Andrews University, Michigan; a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages from the University of Ghana, and a Certificate in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations from the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

    She serves on the board of Wonder Kids School, an early learning centre that offers innovative approaches to children’s education.

  • Leila Yahaya

    Leila Yahaya (They/Them) is a Black, Queer, Muslim, feminist, and human rights activist who lives life as a political statement and creates intentional safe spaces to empower LGBTIQ+ folks to exercise and own agency against SGBV and other human rights violations.

    They have over seven years of experience in community development and activism in gender, sexual & reproductive health, LGBT+ rights and environmental justice through art and feminism.

    They are currently the co-founder and executive director for One Love Sisters Ghana and doubles as the project lead as well as a facilitator for Ghana House.

    As a consent/SOGI facilitator whose work is against gender-based violence, they have organized and facilitated/moderated several workshops/community empowerment engagements in more than 7 regions over the years in rural and urban areas of Ghana.

    Leila believes in identifying and removing gender inequalities for human rights, economic opportunities and development.

  • Dr Esi Awotwi

    Dr. Esi Awotwi is a Public Health and Development Management specialist. She holds a first degree in Nursing with Psychology, and has acquired Masters and Doctoral degrees in Business Administration, with specialization in Health Services Management and Project Management respectively. She has over fifteen years of experience in the research, planning/development, implementation and analysis of HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and gender-related dimensions.

    Her extensive experience in the sector has seen her managing and coordinating government and non-government implementing partners, and spearheading the delivery of innovative, multi-sectoral, social change projects and programs that have yielded positive transformational results. She has worked with agencies including: Ghana AIDS Commission, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS, CoTVET/AfDB/UNDP, WFP, IPPF/PPAG, FIDA Ghana, Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), SWAA Ghana, PAYDP Ghana, AfriYan, Hope for Future Generations (HFFG), Knitweb Foundation, the Ghana Police Service (AIDS Control Unit) and several Regional Coordinating Councils.

  • Dr Grace Gyimah-Boateng

    Dr Grace is a Medical Doctor with over 8 years’ practice with interest in children and women’s rights activism, leadership, development and public health within the context of international development. She is currently the Deputy CEO and Medical Director at Sonotech Medical and Diagnostic Center.

    Dr Grace is a graduate of University of Ghana Medical School (2013) and also holds an EMBA (2018) from the University of Ghana Business School and a Certificate in Leadership and Management in Health from the University of Washington, USA (2020). As an alumnus of the Jacobs-Abbey Global Institute for Leadership (JAGILS) in Washington, Dr Grace holds an Executive Certificate in Strategic Leadership Management (2021) and also Master of Public Health (MPH)2022 from the University of Ghana.

    Dr Grace has always had a passion for the vulnerable and marginalized populations in society, particularly adolescent girls, and has been serving as a human rights advocate since childhood. She started child rights advocacy at age 12, when she joined Children and Youth in Broadcasting - Curious Minds and subsequently became the president of Curious Minds from 2005 - 2015. And was nominated by Ghana Outstanding Women’s Awards 2022 for the women in Health Category Award due to her outstanding contribution to women’s health in the area of breast cancer awareness and support for survivors since 2018.

    Driven by her passion for serving humanity, Dr Grace says “My greatest fulfilment is to see a world where, children, young people and women are empowered to freely contribute to issues affecting them in an environment that ensures their rights are respected”.

  • Abena Benewaa Fosu

    Abena Benewaa is a Feminist Activist, Trainer and Project Management Specialist with over 10yrs of experience working in social and gender justice, specifically women and girl's sexual & reproductive health and rights and socio-economic and leadership and political participation.

    At the age of 18 she volunteered with Curious Minds, a youth advocacy NGO for 9 years before going on to become staff at the organization. This introduction to youth advocacy led her to work with organizations like Building Bridges (a Dutch youth organization) The African Women’s Development Fund, Deutse Welle Akademie Ghana, and The Cova Project (an Australian non-profit).

    In 2015 during her National Service, Benewaa founded Yebetumi not as an organization but a project targeted at mentoring rural girls and significantly improving the lives and livelihoods of women in girls in rural Ghana. She eventually registered Yebetumi is an organisation in 2023. As project lead, Yebetumi implemented several activities in the Central, Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions.

    Benewaa is an active member of Ghana's online feminist community, using her voice and platforms to normalise otherwise taboo conversations especially around women's sexual and reproductive health. She is passionate about helping achieve a world where women and girls live in dignity, are able to action their rights and realise their fullest potential.