The Forum for African Women Educationists (FAWE) has honored its five founding members for their contribution to girls and women education in Africa.
Among the five, was the late Mrs. Vida Amaadi Yeboah, a former Deputy Minister of Education and Founder of FAWE Ghana Chapter.
The others are; Hon. Simone de Comarmond of Seychelles, Hon. Dr. Fay Chung of Zimbabwe, Hon. Paulette Missambo of Gabon and Hon. Alice Tiendrebéogo of Burkina Faso.
The late Mrs. Amaadi Yeboah’s award was presented to her son, Mr. Samuel Yeboah at a short ceremony held in Accra on Monday, October 17, 2022. The others were honoured in their respective countries simultaneously.
The running mate for the National Democratic Congress in the 2020 presidential election and a board member of FAWE Africa, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang and the current Chairperson of FAWE Ghana, Prof. Esi Sutherland-Addy jointly presented the award.
Prof. Jane Naana Agyemang urged other women to learn from the awardees’ selfless efforts in promoting girls and women education.
The former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, stressed that education of the girl child is critical in the development of any country. She commended the late Mrs. Vida Yeboah for taking the bold step in establishing the organization 30 years ago.
For her part, Prof Esi Sutherland-Addy was hopeful that the award would spur other women on to emulate the awardees.
“If we don’t honour people for what they have done, there is no impetus for those of us who are following to even 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,” she explained.
Prof Sutherland-Addy underscored the importance of FAWE, saying the organization has carried out many projects including advocating for the passage of by-laws that promote girl-child education, promotion of adolescent sexual reproduction and health activities, establishment of a school and a community radio station among others.
Mr. Samuel Yeboah, who is the Founder of Meriba Capital, thanked FAWE for the honour done to the memory of his late 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 Minister’s 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 stated.
Mr. Yeboah noted that one of the major areas his firm focuses on is women-led businesses. He explained that it is their belief that empowering women is very rewarding.
“If we empower women to grow businesses in their respective communities, the livelihoods that are impacted are significantly more than when you invest in men. Not to say that investing in men is wrong but the impact of investing in women-led and women-owned businesses addresses social economic gaps that are not addressed when you invest only in men,” the Founder of Meriba Capital said.
FAWE is a pan-African Non-Governmental Organisation that promotes access, retention and quality of education for girls.
