Theresa Morfaw is a multi-award-winning girls rights advocate and leading anti-sexual violence activist from Cameroon. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Youth for Change and Empowerment (YouthFORCE), a dynamic organization at the forefront of advocacy, community engagement and systems change in addressing sexual violence particularly its devastating impact on adolescent girls and young women in conflict-affected regions.
With over a decade of experience working on girls’ rights, gender justice and community empowerment, Theresa has established herself as a formidable voice challenging silence, stigma and systemic neglect. Her work goes beyond awareness — she is deeply committed to transforming how societies understand sexual violence, shifting narratives from victimhood to power, dignity and agency.
Through her leadership, Theresa has directly supported hundreds of survivors, creating safe intentional spaces where their voices are not only heard but amplified. Her work has also reached and impacted millions of community members through large scale advocacy campaigns, public education initiatives and grassroots engagement.
She promotes ethical storytelling, using it as a tool to center survivor experiences, influence public discourse and inspire collective responsibility while fostering empathy, accountability and cultural change. Theresa’s influence extends into high-level policy and systems engagement, where she collaborates with stakeholders across local, national and international spaces to advance survivor centered justice systems, strengthen protection frameworks and expand access to critical resources.
Her work and leadership have received global recognition. She is a recipient of the prestigious EXCELL Award by the Johns Hopkins University and the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health; she has been recognized as a McCain Global Fellow by the McCain Institute affiliated with Arizona State University. A Global Freedom Exchange Fellow with Vital Voices USA, recognizing women leading efforts to combat trafficking in persons worldwide. She is also a Mandela Washington Fellow of the United States Department of State, a runner-up for the Queen’s Young Leaders Award in the United Kingdom and a Milead Fellow recognized among outstanding young women leaders in Africa.
Theresa has spoken at numerous high-level platforms, including convenings at the African Union and the United Nations, the International Conference on Family Planning — the world’s largest gathering on family planning — as well as global forums hosted by the Hilton Foundation and international engagements such as the CORDAID Awards in the Netherlands, among others.
Her work sits powerfully at the intersection of girls’ and women’s rights, human rights, armed conflict and social transformation, positioning her as a leading voice in the movement to end sexual violence and a catalyst for change in communities where silence has long prevailed.
