Founder and Chief Medical Director of the Family, Child & Associates, Dr. Juliet M. Tuakli, has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievers’ Awards at this year’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government Awards, held recently in Accra.

The prestigious awards scheme is an initiative of CEO Global that serves as the pre-eminent recognition platform for women and primarily aims to sustainably celebrate and uplift women who are making an immense contribution to their communities and economies across the African continent.

Dr. Tuakli was recognised for her successful career life spanning over three decades as a celebrated pediatrician, women empowerment promoter and one who epitomises the need for Diasporeans to come back home to contribute towards the development of the African continent.

“After 38 years of practicing medicine, I think it is a real honour to be recognised for the work that I have done across the world. African children have always been at the heart of everything I have done, especially the young girls, so this recognition is very important to me.

And I hope it encourages others that are behind me to also strive and not feel that they are striving in the dark. Sometimes people actually do see what you do when you are touching the lives of others,” she said in a post-event interview with the B&FT.

She added: “My love of children and the belief that we have what it takes on this continent and with the right role models, input and care, we can achieve anything we want on the continent.

I think that when I look at what some people I have met, some people I have had to work with or people I have worked with have done with their lives shows me that sometimes all people need is encouragement, honest encouragement. It’s not always about money. This has been the passion behind what I have been doing over the years.”

Back home to support

Dr. Tuakli is an ardent promoter of having African in the Diaspora come back home to support the continent’s development, and the success she has achieved with her stay and practice in Africa strongly supports her position.

“The solutions to the problems facing Africa are not that far-fetched; and in many ways, we are better placed to know what works for us than people coming from elsewhere.

We come back with skills, the experience, we come back with a lot of expertise that could be leveraged for the growth and development of the continent,” she said.

She also believes that governments across the continent must focus strongly on building the capacity of its youth with the right investments as a means of improving the living standard of the continent’s people.

To her, Africa is endowed with the right resources and hardworking human capital and with the right attention and investments, much of the continent’s problems could be solved.

She indicated: “I think we focus on so much on what we don’t have; we need to start focusing on what we do have and we have hard-working young people. Let’s give them sustainable means of earning livelihoods; they themselves would take it and run.

So, we really need to build our population and we need to build our young people. We really do. That is our answer. Having good infrastructure is important, but I think one of the biggest resources that our governments can do is to invest in our people, our young people.”

Family, Child & Associates is a highly trained healthcare provider for families of West Africa with many years of experience.

Over the years, the facility has grown into the healthcare provider of choice, providing the best in healthcare for the top-brass in the country and across Africa.

Dr. Tuakli said of the facility: “In term of healthcare delivery, we are second to none, that is why we get people coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, seeking healthcare. They come regularly because in their minds, we are offering the best.”