Maame Darkwaa Twum Barima is a bilingual communications strategist and narrative consultant with over 11 years of experience leading advocacy, storytelling, and movement communications across the nonprofit and social impact sectors. She brings a deep commitment to justice-focused narratives, using communications to drive connection, culture shift, and systemic change and is passionate about shifting narratives, amplifying marginalized voices, and using communication as a force for social change.
Maame holds a Master’s degree in Development Communication from the University of Media Arts and Communication (UniMAC), a BA in French and Linguistics from the University of Ghana, and a diploma in Teaching French as a Foreign Language from the Université de Nantes. Fluent in both English and French, she works across diverse regional and global contexts with cultural fluency and strategic depth.
Over the course of her career, Maame has worked with global and regional organizations including CIVICUS, where she led multilingual content and campaign communications for civil society resilience and civic space protection, and the Brave Movement, a global survivor-led campaign to end childhood sexual violence, where she served as Senior Communications and Digital Strategist. Her work experience includes working with the West Africa Civil Society Institute, Brave Movement, the International Food Policy Research Institute based in Dakar, and the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa in Uganda, and the Media Foundation for West Africa where she has led and supported campaign development, narrative repositioning, and high-impact traditional media and digital content strategy.
Across these roles, Maame has led and contributed to campaigns focused on child protection, mental health, gender equity, civic freedoms, decolonized aid, and digital safety. Her work is grounded in trauma-informed, data-driven, and audience-centered approaches.
A natural storyteller, Maame has written for platforms such as openDemocracy, reflecting on how personal narratives and collective advocacy intersect to drive systems change. Her ability to translate complexity into clarity and pain into purpose, makes her a trusted voice and collaborator in global advocacy spaces.
Her storytelling and communications work has spanned issues such as child protection, gender justice, mental health, civic freedoms, and decolonized development, always rooted in trauma-informed practice, survivor-centered messaging, and audience-driven storytelling.
Maame has led and facilitated numerous capacity building trainings focused on strategic communications, narrative development, digital engagement, and storytelling for impact. She has designed and delivered workshops for civil society organizations, grassroots movements, youth-led groups, and survivor advocates across Africa, equipping them with practical tools to amplify their voices, protect civic space, and drive change. Her training approach is participatory, trauma-informed, and tailored to context ensuring that participants not only gain technical skills, but also the confidence to communicate their work with clarity, authenticity, and power. Whether through in-person sessions or virtual learning labs, Maame is known for creating inclusive learning environments that demystify communications and unlock storytelling as a tool for justice.
Whether she’s launching a global campaign, coaching a grassroots partner on storytelling, or developing multilingual comms toolkits, Maame shows up with clarity, creativity, and care. She believes in the power of authentic narratives to cut through noise, challenge norms, and build lasting impact.
