Dr Nana Lordina Mahama has done a lot when it comes to putting smiles on the faces of the vulnerable and underprivileged. We can count from health, education to social internet among others.
On this special day let us get to know the First Lady Dr Nana LordinaMahama better.
Her Excellency, the First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Dr. Nana Lordina Dramani Mahama, wife of current President of Ghana, is an internationally acclaimed and respected advocate for empowering underprivileged and the marginalized in society. She is the current President of the Organization of African First Ladies against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA) and also a Premier Ambassador of the UNAIDS Global Plan on the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission.
Mrs. Lordina Mahama is also the national president of the Lordina Foundation, a
nongovernmental organization that works with local and international partner organisations and agencies to make healthcare more accessible to rural communities in Ghana, and to expand educational and skills based opportunities for, not only the underprivileged, but also the youth.
Her Excellency’s work embraces many pressing public health and educational and skills development issues. The Lordina Foundation has provided medical supplies to hospitals and health facilities in Ghana, worked to prevent breast and cervical cancer and HIV infection in Africa, and helped provide shelter and vocational skills training for women accused of witchcraft who are ostracized by their communities.
The First Lady in the last few years, has undertaken medical outreach, which she added to the portfolio of her Foundation, to support hospitals and health facilities in rural Ghana, with medical supplies and also support Hairdressers, Dressmakers and Beauticians and artisans across the country with equipment to start their businesses. Several students have also benefited from scholarships from her foundation to study home and abroad.
Over the past several years and in a true spirit of mother of the nation, Lordina’s charity work has impacted many lives in Ghana and beyond including adoption and provision of various essential items to orphanages, including facilitating the building of accommodation for toddlers at two orphanages in Ghana.
Among her many advocacy efforts, Her Excellency helped secure the Ghanaian government’s approval of a World Bank program to provide secondary school scholarships to 10,400 Ghanaian children – half of them girls – who come from deprived communities. The First Lady is also a strong advocate against Child Marriage. She, together with other African First Ladies, supported the President of Ghana to launch the Ghana Ending Child Marriage in Africa campaign at the 7th African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, which she hosted in Accra from 9th to 12th February 2016. The First Lady believes every girl needs to go to school and become responsible to society instead of being married off. As Premier Ambassador of the UNAIDS Global Plan on the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission, Her Excellency has fervently embarked on high level advocacy on the UNAIDS Global Plan towards elimination of new HIV infections among children and keeping their mothers alive; and is actively engaged in reducing stigma and discrimination against persons living with HIV.
Through her campaign, she advocates male involvement and community ownership for successful prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. She is devoted to ensuring that no child is born HIV positive or is orphaned as a result of HIV. Her efforts and desire to see the elimination of HIV and AIDS in Africa, culminated in the recent launch of the Continental All-In campaign at the highly successful 7th African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in Accra, Ghana. Her Excellency is also ardent promoter of women’s reproductive health especially the prevention and early detection of cervical and breast cancers.
Her Excellency is the recipient of numerous awards. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Fordham University, New York, USA in May. She has also been honored with a Global Inspiration Leadership Award and inducted into the Global Women Leaders Hall of Fame at the second Africa-Middle East-Asia Women Summit. Among her other honors, she was awarded the key to the city by the City of Newark, New Jersey, Honoured by the State of Georgia and Maryland in the United State of America for her work in women empowerment and support for children in deprived communities in Ghana and given awards for her anti-cervical cancer advocacy in Namibia and Mozambique. She was also singled out for commendation by the United States state Department report for 2013, for standing up and supporting the alleged witches in the Gambaga witch camp in the Northern region of Ghana.
Her sterling work and advocacy also earned her several recognition by traditional authorities across the country, who accordingly enstooled her Queenmother for their traditional areas.
The future focus of the Lordina Foundation, she intends not to rest on her oars, is to send affordable and quality healthcare delivery to the doorstep of deprived communities through the use of mobile clinic vans.
Her Excellency was born and had her early education in Ghana, earning a certificate in catering at Flair Catering Services, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Hospitality Management and a Masters in Governance and Leadership at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). She is currently studying a long distance LLM in Business Law/International Business Law programme at the De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom. Her hobbies include, but not limited to, cooking, marriage counselling, reading, and taking care of children and the vulnerable. Dr. Nana Lordina Dramani Mahama is married with five children, four boys and a girl.
As you celebrate your birthday today, Ghanaians say Ayekoo to you for all the good things you have done and continue to do for the country. We say God bless you as you continue to put smiles on faces of the vulnerable and underprivileged in society.
Long live Sompahemaa Nana Dr Lordina Mahama ! Long live Ghana!
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