Sub-Saharan Africa (SA)

LiberiaFacia Boyenoh Harris (Liberia) – Facia Boyenoh Harris is a life-long activist for women’s rights and against gender-based violence in Liberia. As a co-founder of the Paramount Young Women Initiative, she has worked for decades to address the pervasive sexual assault and harassment of school-aged girls, create opportunities for education, and provide leadership training for the next generation of female leaders. She is also a community organizer, from co-founding the Liberian Feminist Forum to facilitating coordination among female advocacy groups, to fostering neighborhood activism, where she organizes groups on issues as wide-ranging as political participation, sanitation, and rape. Ms. Harris’s courageous activism—which in some cases have been met with threats and harassment—began in the wake of two brutal civil wars, and in a context where rape, female genital mutilation/cutting, and sexual harassment continue to threaten girls and women of all ages. Currently, Ms. Harris is the Director for Outreach and Sensitization of Liberia’s Freedom of Information Act-enforcing Independent Information Commission.