First Lady
Dr Lordina Mahama has called on Africans to learn to preserve what is positive
in their heritage, and culture, and jettison practices that are harmful and
degrading.
Addressing an Association of Wives of African Heads of Mission in
Tokyo and leaders of some Japanese Women Groups at a Luncheon held in her
honour by the Association as part of President John Dramani Mahama's official
visit to Japan , Dr Lordina Mahama noted
that Africa has a lot to be proud off, hence must be preserved. She was quick to add
that practices like child marriage must be discarded.
“Since I assumed the Presidency of OAFLA we have
also included the campaign to end child
marriages to our agenda. Despite our broadened
programme of activities, getting new HIV
infections to
zero remains a principal objective for us.
We are especially worried that new
HIV infections
among adolescents, are not declining quickly enough, as compared to other
segments of the
population.”
This concern
prompted us earlier this year, to hold a meeting of OAFLA members and
stakeholders in
Accra. Under the banner of the 7th Africa
Conference on Sexual and Health
Rights we
launched a new campaign to tackle this challenge.
“The United Continental ‘All-In’ Adolescent HIV
Campaign, which was launched in Accra, will
help us surmount all the hurdles. These include
stigma, discrimination and lack of education,
and also harness the demographic dividend, for
optimal productivity among the youth in
our population” she emphasized.
The first lady expressed her commitment and that of her collegue African
First Ladies to ensure an HIV free
generation for the continent through education, campaigns and the provision of
anti-retroviral drugs, among others.
“At the Accra Conference we also outdoored our
campaign to end child marriage. Under the
MDGs, we made significant progress in virtually
achieving universal primary education,
including gender parity in enrolment”
“This success is jeopardized by the negative
tradition of withdrawing especially girl children
from school and marrying them off at an early age.
Girl children in some case as young as 12
are married off to men three or four times older
than them. This deprives them not only of
precious education, but is also responsible for
increased maternal deaths, fistulas, infant
and child mortality, depression, and even in some
cases, suicide” she lamented.
The First lady believes it is the duty of duty to
prevent our little girl children from
being married off to men they do not know, do not
love, and who are far older than them.
“In Ghana, government policy is helping us greatly
in ensuring that girls stay in school.
Expansion of access to secondary education means
that more girls are staying in school,
beyond the basic school level. Remaining in school
till they complete 3rd year of senior high
means they are able to attain the age of 18, which
is considered the age of maturity in
The first lady spoke of some successes of her
foundation , the lordina foundation. She mentioned collaboration with the Ministry
of Gender Children and Social Protection to empower women, support and promote
children’s rights, and gives assistance to the poor and vulnerable.
The Foundation
has over the years been providing Material
and financial Support to orphanages and going on periodic medical outreach programmes
to mostly under-served communities in Ghana.
“With the support of Medshare USA, our support for
deprived health facilities has been most
successful. We have distributed vital medical
supplies, and equipment, to more than 50
District Hospitals and Health Centres, across the
length and breadth of Ghana” she stated.
Dr Lordina called on her fellow women to contribute
in empowering women all over the globe
and help to heal the ailing world.
