Free the Slaves, on behalf of the Freedom from Slavery Forum and the 2026 Global Forum planning committee, is pleased to announce Sherrynorth Lamisi Attakora as the recipient of the Elkes Impact Award for the Best Advocate with Lived Experience. Sherrynorth is a Ghanaian survivor leader, researcher, broadcaster, and farmer, and the founder of the Sherrynorth Real Life Foundation. Across the movement, she is known as Missi Resilience.
Grace Kalekye, former Elkes Impact Award recipient, presenting the award to Ms. Sherrynorth
Sherrynorth was presented with the award on October 5, 2026 at the 2026 Global Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. Sherrynorth was trafficked and exploited for labor in Iraq. In the years since, she has taken on roles within institutions that shape how Ghana and the wider anti-modern slavery movement respond to trafficking. She served as a Lived Experience Research Leader on a study conducted by the Center on Human Trafficking Research and Outreach (CenHTRO) at the University of Georgia. Sherrynorth has also worked within the Human Trafficking Secretariat under Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and she sits on the Leadership Council of the Global Migrant Workers Network. Through Survivor Alliance, she was selected to the survivor-led Policy Advocacy Working Group, which examined why survivor-led policy advocacy remains under-resourced. Her contribution appears in the published report Empowering Survivor-Led Advocacy: Bridging the Gap. Her work has been equally practical at community level. She facilitated Survivor Alliance’s Saturday Social Call, a recurring space where survivors connect and learn from one another. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led a team of eight survivors who produced roughly 5,000 face masks for their communities, an effort she describes as evidence of a principle she returns to often: survivors carry skills and leadership their communities can draw on. Her Foundation supports survivors, migrant workers, single mothers, orphans, children at risk, and underserved communities across Ghana. Through Real Life with Missi on Orange Radio (United nations population fund (UNFPA), the Real Life with Missi podcast, and One Way Trip From Home, she reaches audiences who rarely encounter accurate information about labor migration and the conditions that make it dangerous. On receiving the award, Sherrynorth said:
“This recognition is more than I could have ever imagined. I receive it for every survivor who has ever felt unseen, unheard, left out or forgotten, and for those who continue to turn their lived experiences into hope and action for others. This award reminds me that our voices matter, our experiences carry knowledge and survivors belong not only at the table but also among those shaping the decisions and solutions.”
The Elkes Impact Awards recognize survivor advocates and survivor-led organizations producing measurable change against modern slavery. Attakora will receive a $1,000 prize, recognition materials, and sponsored participation in the 2026 Freedom from Slavery Global Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, along with a three-year appointment as a Forum Ambassador and continued engagement through the Free the Slaves Survivor Engagement Initiatives.
Ms. Sherrynorth receiving the Elkes Impact Award
