Ruth Kissam is a community organizer and a human rights activist who has focused on Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SRV) in Papua New Guinea.
Graduating from high school in 1998 she, with support from her father, resisted pressure from some family members for her to marry, because they wanted to benefit from the bride price, and went to the University of Papua New Guinea in PNG's capital, Port Moresby, to study law.
In settlement areas near PNG's third-largest city of Mount Hagen she ran a sports program called Sanap Wantaim (Stand up together), to share information about HIV and AIDS.
In 2016, she became director of operations for the PNG Tribal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works in areas of maternal and child health, education, and gender-based violence.
[3] In 2015 Kissam participated in the IREX Community Solutions Program at George Mason University in Virginia, USA.