For the great contributions and efforts made towards the promotion of girl child education, the founding member of the Forum of African Women Educationalists (FAWE), the late Mrs Vida Amadi Yeboah, has been posthumously honoured.
Yeboah was among the other five founding members, namely Mrs Simone de Camarmond of Seychelles, Dr Fay Chung of Zimbabwe, Mrs Paulette Missambo of Gabon and Mrs Alice Tiendrebéogo of Burkina Faso, who were honoured by FAWE African, their respective countries simultaneously.
While honouring the late Mrs Yeboah, a Board member of FAWE Africa, Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang and the Chairperson of the FAWE Ghana Chapter, Prof. Esi Sutherland-Addy, jointly presented a plaque award to the son of the late Mrs Yeboah, Mr Samuel Yeboah.
Presenting the award, Prof. Agyemang underscored the importance of girl child education to the country’s development while urging women to learn from the selfless effort portrayed by the former Minister of Education and Founder of the FAWE Ghana Chapter in that regard.
On her part, the Chairperson of the FAWE Ghana Chapter, Prof. Sutherland-Addy, noted that she was hopeful the presentation of the award would spur other women to intensify their effort in promoting girl child education.
“If we don’t honour people for what they have done, there is no impetus for those of us who are following even to know that anything was done and also to try and keep up with what has been done. So this is the importance of this day,” Prof. Sutherland-Addy explained.
In addition, she noted that FAWE had undertaken several projects and initiatives in the promotion of girl child education which included the passing of bye-laws in some traditional areas, the establishment of a diaspora school, setting up of FAWE FM, a community radio station in the Eastern region among others.
However, she explained that changing the minds of individuals about girl child education, economic difficulties, and obtaining long-term programmes from donor partners was a challenge but was optimistic about the future.
Receiving the award on behalf of her late mother, Mr Yeboahexpressed his profound gratitude to FAWE for honouring his mother and the other award recipients.
“I do not think that they did the work because of recognition. They did it because they themselves have been impacted by access to education. Most of them were very well advanced in Education; All of them at that time were Ministers of Education in their respective countries, so the work that they did was based on the passion and the belief that they had in driving the welfare of the girl child and their understanding of its impact on Africa’s socio-economic landscape,” he said.
Mr Yeboah, who is also the Founder of Mariba Capital, further noted that his business was focused on women-led and women-owned businesses, which would help bridge the socio-economic gap in the country.
“If we empower women to grow businesses in their respective communities, the livelihood that is impacted is significantly more than when you invest in men. Not to say that when you invest in men is wrong, but the impact when you invest in women-owned businesses addresses certain socio-economic gaps”, he explained.
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