Lordina Mahama

Mrs. Mahama became Second Lady when her husband John Dramani Mahama, the former President of the Republic of Ghana, became the vice-president of Ghana to President John Evans Atta-Mills on 7 January 2009.[10] She served as Second Lady until July 2012, when she became First Lady of Ghana.

Lordina and John Mahama being received by Mohan Kundariya at the India-Africa Forum Summit in 2015

In line with Ghana's constitution, her husband became President of Ghana on 24 July 2012 on the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills and was sworn in to Parliament in July 2012, automatically making her the First Lady of the Republic of Ghana.[11] As First Lady she worked as an HIV/AIDS advocate, Breast and cervical cancer advocate, empowered women through her foundation and through Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) whilst also representing Ghana at different conferences and forums to discuss issues relating to women and children.

In her tenure as First Lady, Mahama was also elected President of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA)[12] in June 2015. Before that, she had served as the Vice President for the West Africa Region of OAFLA.[13]

As President of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA), Mahama was honoured at the 50th International Women Luncheon of the Rainbow Push Coalition which took place in Chicago (USA) for her role and outstanding work in advocating for the destitute and vulnerable children in Africa and also in her role as president to empower women to take charge of their reproductive health rights, as well as end mother-to-child transmission of HIV.[14][5]

From 2013 until she left office, Mahama worked with the Ghana AIDS Commission and other agencies to bring as integrated HIV and AIDS, Sexual Reproductive health, Breast and Cervical cancer services to all the then ten regions in Ghana.[15] The decision to include HIV and AIDS service during such health outreach programs was due to being aware that people infected with HIV were more susceptible to developing cancers. Due to that during those outreaches, the former First Lady took the opportunity to also engage directly with leaders, members of the communities she visited to advocate for more people to know their status and start early treatment.[15] She remained a keen advocate on issues relating to HIV/AIDS whilst serving as First Lady.[16][17][18]

During her tenure, Mahama was an advocate for Breast and Cervical cancers.[4][15][19][20] Through her foundation and her role as First Lady, she came up with initiatives for early detection screening of women especially within the rural areas of Ghana to ensure proper treatment if necessary.[21][22][23]

First ladies Cervical Cancer meet up with the Baroness Northover

Through her foundation and support from government and other private and non-governmental organisations, some girls in Ghana have been immunised against HPV by the GAVI vaccination initiative to prevent cervical cancer and other diseases.[21][22][23] She considered women as being major contributors to the development of the world's economies as seen over the years and made continuous calls on non-governmental organisations to help bridge the health promotion and healthcare delivery gap in terms of cancer as they provide the main source of funding for such initiatives not withstanding governments providing healthcare funds.

She represented Ghana at the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Stop Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer conference.[24][25][26] At the 8th conference, she announced that Ghana was going to start the implementation of a five-year National Strategy for Cancer Control to roll out various interventions that will help manage and control breast and cervical cancers, as well as other cancers in the country.[26][27]

On 21 July 2015, she called on other first ladies at the 9th Stop Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer (SCCA) conference in Nairobi, Kenya, not to see implements as a dream but rather develop initiatives and campaigns for action to be taken to ensure early detection and to lead a planned, sustained campaign and work with related agencies and organizations to support cancer prevention and control in Africa.[20][4][24]

Mahama made it known that approximately 2,900 women in Ghana are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and that based on the World Health Organization (WHO) findings, 6.7 million women within ages 15 and older in Ghana were estimated to be at risk at developing cervical and breast cancer, through her initiatives and the governments’, they were hoping on improving the situation in Ghana and to reduce the mortality rate of cancer by 30 percent.[20][4][24]

Care for the underprivileged

Whilst she was First Lady, Mahama led initiatives to provide for the underprivileged within the society. Her focus was providing food items, housekeeping items, clothes, and other basic items to orphanages and ‘’witch camps’ within Ghana.[28][29]

Through her foundation, she adopted six vulnerable orphanages and one witch camp in Ghana as focus facilities for her donations whilst still contributing to other orphanages. The orphanages and witch camp were made up of two in the Greater Accra Region; the Osu Children's Home in Osu and the Christ Faith Forster home in Frafraha, two in the Brong Ahafo Region; FrankMay Children's Home and Bethesda Children's Home both in Techiman, two in the Northern Region; the Tamale Children's Home and Anfaani Children's Home both in Tamale and the Gambaga Witches Camp located in the North-East Region.[28][29][30] Over the period she served she made several donations to these orphanages and several others.[30][31][28][32][33]

In May 2014, she visited the Gambaga Witch Camp and donated Bags of rice, utensils, pieces of clothes and other items for their up keep. She began the construction of accommodation facilities for the alleged witches at the Gambaga camp. She also visited Nyohini Children's Home and the Anfaani Orphanage in Tamale, where she interacted with the children and made donations food items including bags of rice, sugar, milk, toiletries and others for the upkeep of kids at the orphanages.[34]

In December 2016, she along with Nana Oye Lithur, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection inaugurated an accommodation complex for toddlers financed by her foundation at the Osu Children's Home.[35][29] She also presented food items and bales of clothes to support the children in celebrating the Christmas.[35][29]

President Obama and First Lady Michelle with President John Mahama and First Lady Lordina Mahama, Blue Room during a US-Africa Leaders Summit at the White House, Aug. 5, 2014.

Through her women empowerment initiatives she adopted the Gambaga Witch Camp located in North-East Region of Ghana as a centre that needed attention.[36][37] She began a training centre building project at the camp called the Gambaga Training Centre to provide vocational training and other entrepreneur skills to serve women and girls within the camp and near by communities. These skills were to help empower them and help start their own enterprises after completion. As part of the training centre she was putting up a hostel facility for students in and around Gambaga who would want to train at the centre.[36][37][38]

She also made several donations of start-up kits to artisans across the country who had completed and graduated from vocational training centres and institutes to facilitate their entry into the business world and help them establish their own enterprises and businesses,[39][40] these included donations in support with the Chinese Embassy in Ghana through their Ambassador Sun Baohong.[41][42]