She said since its inception, the foundation had empowered a number of women in parts of the country with skills training and presented them with start-up kits to start businesses, while it had also donated educational materials to some schools, as well as constructed ICT centres and dining halls for these institutions.

Durbar

Mrs Mahama was addressing a durbar at Asamankese in the Eastern Region, where the Lordina Foundation and its partners, MedShare of the United States of America, presented assorted medical supplies to the Asamankese Government Hospital.

The equipment included babies cots, plastic adhesives, syringes, theatre masks, gloves, electrical orthopaedic beds, plastic bandages and urological products.

She said the donation to the hospital formed part of the ongoing activities of the foundation to support the communities across the country and to date, more than 100 health facilities from all the regions of Ghana had benefited.

According to the First Lady, empowering women would lead to a positive change in the society, stressing, “Women are the backbone of every family, since they play vital roles in the development of every nation. Let us all join forces to empower our women by making them relevant in the society and nation building”.

She also said the foundation believed that education was one of the most important means of empowering women with knowledge, skills and self-confidence which is necessary to enable them to participate fully in the development process.

 She touched on the importance of agriculture as one of the economic activities the people of Asamankese and its surrounding communities were involved in and the fact that cocoa, a major foreign exchange earner for the country, is widely produced in the West Akim District.

Appreciation

The First Lady expressed her appreciation to the health workers for making meaningful contribution to health care in the region in particular and the country as a whole, adding that it was her conviction that healthcare professionals would be motivated to fulfil the social obligation of government to ensure accessible health care to the citizens.

She gave the assurance that the foundation would work in co-operation with other organisations to support initiatives that would assist the underprivileged in accessing quality health care.

She lauded the government for coming up with the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds, mobile vans called “Onuado”, in addition to other initiatives to extend health care to the doorstep of the people.

She said being a busy market centre in the region meant that the Asamankese Hospital needed more resources to be able to cope with the demand for its services, hence, the decision by the foundation to go to its aid.

 The Chief of Asamankese, Osabarima Adu Darko III, expressed appreciation to the foundation and added that the medical supplies would go a long way to ensure quality health care at the hospital.

He also commended the government for the reconstruction of the Asamankese roads which has been a major worry to the people of the area, and the provision of other social amenities within the district.