First Lady calls for maternal and new-born deaths reduction

First lady, Lordina Mahama, has urged African First Ladies to work tirelessly to enhance the lives of women and children by particularly reducing cervical and breast cancers, HIV AIDS and maternal and child mortality.

Lordina Mahama gave the concluding remarks at a high-level dialogue with African first ladies on maternal and new-born health beyond 2014 on the sidelines of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York. The dialogue on Maternal and New-Born Health beyond 2014 was put together by the organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund.

It attracted First Ladies and dignitaries from across the African continent and beyond, including Madam Ban Soon-Taek, wife of the UN Secretary General, Ban Kin-Moon and Her Royal Highness Anna Garcia De Hernandez, First Lady of Honduras.

The session seeks to advocate the reduction of maternal mortality in Africa with a focus on adolescent girls who are the great sufferers.

It also aims to accelerate efforts to attain millennium development goal 5 while ensuring that sexual and reproductive health rights of women particularly adolescent girls are championed in the post 2015 development agenda.

On the sidelines of the 69th Session of the United Nations General assembly, African First Ladies took turns to catalogue the challenges that confront women, children and adolescents in their respective countries.

Forced and early marriages which deprive adolescents from attaining education, sexual and domestic abuse and adolescent pregnancies were top on the list.

United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors, Yvonne Chaka Chaka from South Africa and Angelique Kidjo from Benin, challenged the African First Ladies to be the drivers of their own agenda to help make women and children more comfortable.

After several deliberations, the first lady of Ghana, Lordina Mahama, who gave the closing remarks, urged her colleague’s to be committed to their goal.

She thanked and commended the UN and its agencies for ensuring the success of the event.