Lamnatu Adam is a development practitioner who has over 20 years of experience in gender and human rights activism in development. She also has a solid track record and background in gender-responsive program design and management. Lamnatu has a deep interest in the fight for social justice. She is focused on community development and empowerment of marginalized populations such as women, children and the disabled. Thus, she contributes significantly to changing narratives on gender discrimination and violence against excluded groups within and beyond northern Ghana. Her advocacy work has earned her several awards. Lamnatu's contributions have been enormous toward advocating for reintegration, closure and dignity of marginalize groups, and she was recognized by the organization "Girls, Not Brides" for her work to remove child marriages from communities.
In Ghana, more women suffer violence, particularly domestic violence, than men. The victims also find it difficult to get any form of support such as psychosocial counselling in order to facilitate their rehabilitation. This project was commissioned to mobilize and facilitate the networking of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. The project engaged 34 survivors as well as members of the local government and traditional and religious leaders in order to propel a national discourse on SGBV through storytelling, documentation and to solicit policy responses from responsible parties on SGBV. The project worked with Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to profile the survivors in a documentary to reduce sexual and gender-based violence in the community, and to be shared on national media. During this period, the Legal Aid Commission saw an increase in reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence. The climax of the project was a national dialogue forum that targeted policymakers for their commitments and policy responses. During the forum, Chiefs and elder leaders committed to implementing systems to reduce the vulnerability of women and girls. The project was implemented in Tamale Metropolis in the Northern Region of Ghana.
Lamnatu was a participant in the IVLP Project Women in Politics and Civil Society, organized by the U.S. Department of State, Meridian International Center and FHI 360.
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