Activist Grant Making Panel - AGMP

Tano Marie Davila

She/Her

Davila is a transgender woman, activist and executive director of the NGO QET Inclusion. Although she is still very young, she practices her activism every day, both in her professional and personal life, thinking about strategies for self-education and education within the transgender community, the LGBTQIA+ movement as a whole, and society at large. In doing so, she hopes to help deconstruct stereotypes and prejudices about gender identities.

Doose Didi Mchihi

She/Her

Doose is a psychotherapist and LGBTIQ+ activist who concentrates her activism on LBQTI women from both national and regional perspectives. She has been a queer activist for over 7 years and has worked with different LGBTIQ+ organizations. She has independently produced a photobook titled "The Red Flags" that highlights the numerous prejudices against LBQTI womxn with overlapping identities and a video documentary titled "Without Borders" that highlighted the exclusion of Northern Nigerian LBQTI womxn in national LBQTI programs. Her work in a variety of subjects mostly focuses on the experiences of LBQTI women in Nigeria.

She holds a degree in psychology and is a licensed professional counselor. She has a wealth of experience in counseling services in relation to the mental health and well-being of LGBTIQ+ people, couples, and organizations. She brings to the Panel her understanding of advocacy, human rights, movement building, fundraising, partnership sustainability, and her research experiences in analyzing numerous themes pertaining to social justice, activism, and the LGBTIQ+ community in Nigeria and West Africa. She has over time gained multilateral knowledge of LBQTI organizing from her works and participation in fellowships and the Outright International LBQ program. Doose is passionate about promoting LGBTIQ rights and fostering a society that is more inclusive and equal. She is devoted to carrying on her work with the LGBTIQ community and is keen to put her experience to good use. Doose enjoys traveling, dancing, and playing Scrabble. While she is not working professionally, you can find her having fun and living life to the fullest with her LGBTI+ friends.

Ange Charly Koye

He/Him

Charly is the Co-founder and former President of the Board of Directors of LGBTQI All Inside, an NGO in Côte d'Ivoire. Charly has 5 years of experience in project management. Currently, Charly is the Executive Director of the NGO, Impact Life and works as a project coordinator for key populations in the South Comoe region of Côte d'Ivoire. Charly is a Ph.D. student in History and is preparing a thesis on the history of HIV among MSM and Sex Workers in Côte d'Ivoire.

Evane Yamamoto

They/Them

Evane is a non-binary umbrella activist whose activism began in April 2014 as a sexual health volunteer. They then learned more about activism with the country's first nonprofit organization starting in 2015 as a volunteer. Actor, activist, and recognized leader, they are involved on many levels in the fight for the recognition of the rights of LGBTIQ people, especially transgender people. In 2017, they helped create the first transgender association in Mali. Evane is also a member of the African Queer Youth Initiative (AQYI).

Fatou Sow

She/Her

Fatou is a human rights activist with a vision for an inclusive society and a mission to fight against social injustice, stigma and discrimination and for the well-being and respect of the rights of young girls, LBT+ women, and all disadvantaged and stigmatized women.

Gideon Adjaka

He/Him

Gideon is a social worker with 11 years of experience in Community Development, Human rights advocacy, chronic illness management, and Organization and Project management in the NGO sector, with a key focus on Marginalized Communities. Gideon is a social worker with 11 years of experience in community development, human rights advocacy, chronic disease management, and organization and project management in the NGO sector, with a particular focus on marginalized communities.

Leila Yahaya

They/Them

Leila 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.

Their work includes capacity strengthening on human rights, safety, safeguarding, gender, intimate partner abuse, religion and sexuality, mental health, and sexual abuse. Leila believes in identifying and removing gender inequalities for human rights, economic opportunities, and development.

Marian C. Nwaokolo

She/They

Marian is a doctor of optometry who gave up clinical practice to pursue her dream of full-time activism. She is a radical lesbian feminist and an outspoken activist working at the intersection of sexual and reproductive health and rights, LGBTQI+ rights, disability rights, and sex worker rights. She loves knowledge, is very passionate about community, and has worked in rural, remote, and urban areas to support change initiatives. She immerses herself in projects with an inquisitive mind, making connections to learn from and with community members. 

She’s the principal and lead facilitator at Ngọọ Consultants, a consulting firm she founded to help strengthen and scale up programmatic efforts of small and mid-sized grassroots organizations to visibilize and sustain the work being done, through the application of feminist principles, movement building/listening, and knowledge management. Marian lives by Emma Lazarus’s quote that says “None is free until all are free”

Maxwell W. Monboe

He/Him

Maxwell is an LGBTIQA+ Human Rights Advocate. He currently serves as the Coordinator of the Secretariat at Liberia Initiative for the Promotion of Rights, Identity, Diversity, and Equality [LIPRIDE], an LGBTIQA+-led coalition with 18 member organizations. The LGBTQIA+ community is marked by tremendous violence, marginalization, injustice, stigma, and discrimination. With over 10 years of experience, Maxwell is specialized in LGBTQIA+ rights advocacy, social work, HIV prevention, awareness, and creating a safe space for LGBTQIA+ individuals and organizations. Maxwell has garnered some national and international recognition for himself as an advocate. Maxwell spends much of his professional life promoting Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights for the LGBTIQA+ community in Liberia.

Vanessa Aziaku Afiawavi

She/Her

Vanessa is a 39-year-old transgender woman who joined the LGBT movement in 2008 by joining one of the identity associations in her country. A member of this association from 2008 to 2012, she then became a program manager and community facilitator in a non-governmental organization for people living with HIV where she was in charge of monitoring members of the LGBT community living with HIV. On September 12, 2017, she co-founded an organization and became its first president from 2017 to 2019 before becoming its executive director.

Savadogo Ledia Afane Samir

He/Him

Samir is a young activist who is interested in human rights, especially women's rights and LGBTQI people's rights. He advocates for human rights independently according to his own vision and experience but also collaborates with LGBTQI and human rights organizations to learn more. For this reason, Samir studied law in order to have more knowledge and to better serve the community by helping the young people around him by sharing experiences, giving advice and assistance, and trying to teach the laypeople the notion of rights and freedom that each individual has. Samir likes music, cinema, going out with friends, and meeting new people.