Angela Dwamena-Aboagye
Title: Executive Director
Company/Organization: The Ark Foundation
Program: Advanced Training for Leadership and Skills
(ATLAS)
Degree: Master's in Law (LLM)
Year Completed: 1995
Ms. Angela Dwamena-Aboagye is currently the Executive Director of the Ark Foundation in Ghana. The Ark Foundation, a non-governmental organization which she founded in 1994, seeks the "total liberation of women and children from all systems, laws, traditions and practices which violate their right to human dignity and development. Through the Ark Foundation, Ms. Dwamena-Aboagye set up the first shelter and crisis center for victims of family and gender-based violence in Ghana in 2000. In addition, the Ark Foundation has established a Legal and Counseling Center that provides support services for victims of sex-based and gender-based violence in different locations in the greater Accra and Eastern regions of Ghana. Since 2005, Ms. Aboagye has also been a lecturer on Gender and the Law at the University of Ghana in Legon. Previously, she was a prosecutor in the Attorney General's Department in Korfidua in the Eastern part of Ghana.
In addition to her advocacy work, Ms. Dwamena-Aboagye has been a vocal advocate for women's rights appearing on several radio programs and has been instrumental in the formation of a number of women's rights and advocacy networks in Ghana, including: Sisters' Keepers, Network for Women's Rights, Gender Violence Survivors' Support Network, and the National Coalition on Domestic Violence Legislation in Ghana. She has also established the Women's Law and Human Rights Institute, the first of its kind in Ghana, to provide learning and capacity-building opportunities for young women leaders and advocates.
Ms. Dwamena-Aboagye has had an extensive academic career. In 2006, she earned a master's of arts in theology and missions at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute for Theology, Mission and Cultureis. She is an alumna of the African Women's Leadership Institute of the Akina Mama wa Afrika Organization, based in the United Kingdom, from which she graduated in 1999. She holds a honors bachelor's degree in law from the University of Ghana in Legon and a certificate of law from the Ghana School of Law, which she earned in 1987 and 1989 respectively.
Under AAI's program, Ms. Dwamena-Aboagye recieved a scholarship to earn a master's degree in law from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995. During her studies at Georgetown University, Ms. Dwamena-Aboagye was a fellow at the Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Program, in which she completed a research paper entitled, "Polygamy, Equality and the Gender Debate, a comparative study of Ghana and the United States." She also interned for Human Rights Watch (HRW), conducting research for HRW's Women's Rights Project.
Ms. Dwamena-Aboagye is a member of the Ghana Bar Association, the African Women Lawyers Association, the Ghana Integrity Initiative which is a branch of Transparency International, the Africa Regional Advisory Committee of the African Women's Development Fund and the National Advisory Committee on Community Policing in Ghana. Ms. Aboagye was featured in a 2006 exhibition entitled, "Women Empowering Women." The exhibition, organized by the Foundation for Female Photojournalists (FFP), featured 50 Ghanaian women who are working in diverse ways to empower women.