HerStory: Educate a Woman, Educate a Nation
About
WHAT IS THIS PROJECT ABOUT?
First, we created an award winning short documentary that focuses on disadvantaged Ghanaian girls as they complete their last year at the West African Secondary School and make plans for their futures. The girls have overcome enormous obstacles to be academically successful, but will it be enough for them to realize their dreams of attending college?
This project is the result of five years of research on women and education in Ghana and is now being distributed by Discovery Education. Learn more about the research here. Based on this work, we created an organization that helps these girls be the first in their families to go to and through college - The TWII Foundation. Now, we have over three dozen girls are in college pipeline!
EMPOWERING WOMEN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
WHY IS THIS WORK IMPORTANT?
Girls’ education enables global development. By sharing these girls' stories about how they are succeeding in school and trying to break the cycle of poverty, in addition to actually providing a mechanism to help them overcome the obstacles before them through scholarships, we are not only continuing the conversation, but also doing the work of empowering women to positively change the world.
Sally Nuamah, Producer/Founder
Sally Nuamah is a scholar, advocate and filmmaker, focusing on the use of research and digital mediums to tell stories of the disadvantaged. In 2007, she was awarded the Princeton Prize by Princeton University alumni for her work in improving race relations. That same year she was also selected among thousands of students for the National Coca-Cola scholarship and the Gates Millennium scholarship.
In the fall of 2008, Sally had the great opportunity to work for president Barack Obama as a health policy intern. In 2009, she began collecting footage for her documentary, HerStory, on girls and Education in Ghana. This work was highlighted in her 2013 TEDx talk, Clapping with One Hand, in addition her film's selection as " Best Educational Documentary Short" at Bare Bones; a film festival ranked top 20 by PBS for Documentaries. The film has screened across the globe and is now accessible through Discovery Education. In addition to the film, she began a scholarship organization, the TWII Foundation, to provide funding for girls striving to be first in the families to go to college. The foundation celebrated its first set of graduates in May 2016. For her broader work, she was selected as a "nominated change maker" for the White House State of Women Summit, selected for a BWOPA under 40 award in education named one of Chicago's 35 under 35 leaders making an impact.
After graduating at GWU, she was awarded the GWU Manatt-Trachtenberg Award, presented to a student who has significantly challenged the social and intellectual conscience of the university, inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and named one of two Distinguished Scholars; the highest mark of distinction at the university. She is now a member of the Board of trustee at GWU.
In 2014, she was selected for the National Science Foundation fellowship and began her studies as a PhD Candidate at Northwestern University. In 2014, She was named a pre-doctoral fellow recipient at the University of Pennsylvania and began conducting research for a number of groups including the USAID and the United Nations Foundation. In 2016, she was named a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University and a Women and Public Policy fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. In the fall of 2018, she began a tenure track professor position at Duke University. Currently, she is a tenured professor at Northwestern University.
Lily Morkli
Director and Coordinator
Lily Morkli is TWII foundation's very first graduate. She graduated from the University of Ghana, Legon in 2015. Since then, she served as the lead director and coordinator for the scholarship program acting as the key point of contact. We are so honored to have her on board.