First Lady honoured with Osagyefo Pan Africa Eminence Award
The first lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, has been honoured with the Osagyefo Pan Africa Eminence Award for 2016 as the Most Charismatic and Influential First Lady of Africa.
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Her foundation, the Lordina Foundation, was also honoured with the Best Charitable Foundation in Africa award.
Mrs Mahama’s recognition came as a result of her persistent interest in humanitarian, health and social issues for many years.
The two awards, which were conferred on her and her foundation by the Confederation of Governance Assessment Institute (COGAI), also recognised her supportive role as a wife of the President and her reaction to social and health issues, particularly relating to women and children.
Supportive role
A citation presented to the First Lady at a colourful ceremony in Accra said, “Her Excellency Lordina Mahama’s reactions to public issues and commentaries depict her charismatic nature and the influence she has on the citizenry, especially the girl-child.”
It said, her advocacy role against child marriage, child labour, breast and cervical cancer, HIV prevention and adolescent sexual reproductive health had been phenomenal within these past years, stressing that she had been “undoubtedly the Most Charismatic and Influential First Lady in Africa subregion for the past years apparent in the significant supportive role she plays as a wife of the President of a Republic where expectations and demands are too overwhelming to anyone who holds that office.”
She is currently the President of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA), President of the Lordina Foundation and the Premier Ambassador of the UNAIDS Global Plan on the Prevention of Mother-Child- Transmission.
The First Lady’s nationwide medical supplies to health facilities in all 10 regions of the country, her support and efforts to help prevent breast and cervical cancers and HIV in Ghana, her dedication and determination to provide shelter and vocational training for the inmates and residents of the Gambaga Witches Camp, coupled with her adoption of many orphanages across Ghana, and constantly providing them with food, clothing and other essentials all contributed to her recognition and award.
Child marriage campaign
Earlier this year, Mrs Mahama, launched a campaign to end child marriage at the sidelines of the 7th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights held in Accra.
She also joined her colleague First Lady of Ivory Coast, Madame Dominique Ouattara, to sign a joint declaration to fight against human trafficking and worst forms of child labour.
These are efforts geared towards making life comfortable for the citizenry, especially women and children and it is not surprising that the Lordina Foundation was honoured with the Best Charitable Foundation in Africa award.
A citation presented to the foundation stated, “Lordina Foundation has proven itself to be the most passionate and vibrant foundation for the most vulnerable in Africa. Its quest for having compassion on the needy and aiding them in all aspect of life earned it this accolade’’.
