Children of Akua Kuenyehia set up Foundation in mother's honour

Accra, Sept. 13, GNA - A foundation that aims to increase girls enrolment in schools in order to prop up their contribution to national development has been launched in Accra in honour of Mrs Akua Kuenyehia, one of Ghana's top legal luminary.

The "Akua Kuenyehia Foundation" is also support brilliant but needy Ghanaian girls with basic education to continue to the highest levels through its scholarship programme.

The children of Akua Kuenyehia, currently the first vice president of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, set up the foundation to further build on what their mother had single-handedly initiated in the area of girls education.

Mrs Christine Dowuona-Hammond, Chairperson of the Foundation's Board of Trustees, said the Foundation aimed at bridging the current huge gap in the rate of school retention between boys and girls. She said each beneficiary would be assigned a mentor to provide guidance and support throughout her education and career outlook. Mrs Dowuona-Hammond said the scholarship would be awarded on merit to brilliant but needy girls to pursue higher education to the tertiary level and beyond.

In her remarks, Mrs Kuenyehia said she was humbled by her children's decision to set up a Foundation in her honour. She said her vision was to help develop assertive women through the provision of quality education that would help accelerate the country's development.

Mrs Kuenyehia expressed the hope that the Foundation would be able to support and educate at least 1,000 girls each year in various schools across the country. Professor Irene Odotei, a former director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, urged all to make generous contributions to the Foundation to enhance access of girls to education.

She called on the Trustees of the Foundation not to focus solely on girls but also extend assistance to boys in similar situations. Mr Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia, one of the children, said they decided to set up the Foundation to increase the support that their mother had been extending in her small way to a number of girls in such situations.