Sometimes, change does not begin loudly. It begins quietly in classrooms, in community halls, in farms, or in the hearts of women who choose not to surrender to silence. This is the spirit behind the 2025 Global Activist Network (GAN) Impact Fund, which has chosen two African women whose life’s work is rewriting the narrative for young women across their nations.
One of them moves cities literally, by teaching women to ride scooters and bicycles. The other rebuilds futures by teaching girls to find their voices, their rights and their financial strength. Together, their stories show what happens when empathy becomes leadership and conviction becomes strategy.
From Cairo, Egypt, Dr. Nouran Farouk uses mobility as a bridge to inclusion. Her organisation, Dosy, trains women to control their movement and their job prospects through micromobility. More than 8,000 women have learned to ride under her guidance, with thousands gaining employment as a result.
The second recipient, pulsing with urgency, defiance and hope, comes from Nigeria.
Joy Oluwatoyin Adeboye does not simply advocate; she rebuilds. The founder of LEVAWG Initiative and CEO of Resilient Joy Agro Farms, Joy emerged from her own trauma determined to ensure no girl walks alone through violence, fear or voicelessness. Her mission is not abstract, it is deeply personal. She has taken her survival and alchemised it into systems that heal others.
Where some see victims, Joy sees leaders waiting for their turning point. She mentors girls, trains them in leadership, teaches reproductive health rights and uses storytelling as therapy and transformation. She is as comfortable guiding a young survivor through legal processes as she is helping a teenager learn how to raise poultry, manage income and discover independence. To her, dignity is not given; it is built.
Her journey has been shaped by knowledge as much as passion. A philosophy degree, business school exposure and gender advocacy certification equipped her with tools to design what she calls “the architecture of courage”, a model honouring both emotional well-being and economic empowerment. The reach of her work is staggering: more than 21,000 women and girls have benefited from her initiatives, some rescued, others strengthened, many inspired to speak and lead.
Awards have followed her impact, including the Princess Diana Award and a finalist position at the 2024 .ORG Impact Awards. Most recently, she carried Nigeria’s voice to the United Nations stage in Qatar at the Second World Summit for Social Development. Yet, in every recognition, she redirects attention back to the girls whose futures she is fiercely rewriting.
The GAN Impact Fund arrives as expansion fuel, a chance to deepen these transformations and multiply outcomes. It is not just another grant; it is an endorsement of the belief that the answers to community challenges often already live within the community. With GAN’s support, spaces where Nigerian girls grow braver and Egyptian women move freer will widen.
As their stories expand under GAN’s backing, they offer a truth worth repeating: when women lead from experience, the world shifts, not in theory, but in lives changed, doors opened and futures reclaimed.
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