Founder Story: Shalimar Abbiusi | I Am Human Foundation

The founder

Shalimar Abbiusi

Founder, I Am Human Foundation

Shalimar Abbiusi spoke up for the people of Ghana. For that, she was mistreated and unlawfully detained. It is a story that should have stayed local and disappeared, and instead it travelled: picked up by broadcasters, carried across borders, and followed by people in country after country who had never heard her name a week earlier.

Crowds gathered outside the court. Placards read Free Shallie and Protect Civil Liberties. What made the case resonate was not that it was rare, but that it was so recognisable. Almost everyone watching knew someone who had been silenced and had no platform at all.

That is the difference the foundation was built on. What happened to her is not unusual. What is unusual is walking out with an audience, and deciding to spend it on the people who never get one. I Am Human Foundation exists because of that decision, and every project it runs is an attempt to make the same protection ordinary rather than exceptional.

Her own case taught the foundation where to look: at detention without due process, at power that answers to no one, and at the people, very often women, who carry the heaviest cost when a system stops working and are the least likely to be heard complaining about it.

Every life has equal value.

Shalimar Abbiusi

In her own words

The story, told by the person it happened to

The account that reached audiences in country after country. Fifteen minutes is enough to understand why this foundation exists.

Speaking up

When rights are abused without accountability

Detention that follows speech is not a private misfortune. It is a public warning to everyone else considering whether to speak.

Demonstrators gathered outside a court building holding placards reading Free Shallie and Protect Civil Liberties, Release Shallie Now — **Supporters outside the court in Ghana** Demonstrators calling for release and a fair trial. Broadcast still, source: JoyNews (myjoyonline.com), reproduced here as a record of the events described on this page.

What it taught us

The convictions this foundation was built on

Silence is the point

Detaining one person who speaks is intended to quiet many who were about to. Refusing that silence is itself the work.
Process protects everyone

Fair trial and due process are not technicalities. They are the difference between a justice system and an instrument of power.
Rights need substance

Freedom means little without water, healthcare, and education. Advocacy and essential needs are one mission, not two.

Using the platform

From her own case to other people’s

What happened to her is not unusual. What is unusual is having a platform afterwards. Shalimar Abbiusi has spent the time since speaking publicly, meeting communities, and putting the attention her own case attracted to work for people who will never have a camera pointed at them.

That means turning up in person: in markets, meeting halls, classrooms and on roadsides, and letting people say what they need directly.