Tema-Ghana, Nov. 15 – The Volta Development Forum (VDF) has joined Ex-President John Agyekum Kufour and family to mourn the passing away of the late former First Lady Theresa Kufour at the weekend.
Dr. Prince Kofi Kludjeson, who is the President of the Volta Development Forum, noted in an interview that, in accordance with tradition, the group and a section of chiefs and queen mothers from the Volta Region decided to pay the courtesy call and support the former family.
The delegation includes the Akpini Traditional Council led by Togbe Dagadu Okpekpewuokpe, the Paramount Chief; Togbui Ablatenu IX, Tsakpe Hlorma; Togbui Gbeklor VIII, Dzoanti; Togbui Dake Foli IV, Chief of Agudzi; Mama Koloxoe III, Queen Bisiaku; Mama Dake III, Queenmother; Kpando Tsakpe Deveme; and Mr. Godwin Esseh, a businessman.
Others were Dr. Ernest Ansah Aculey, founder of Datalink Institute of Business and Technology; Dr. Eric Amakpa, Medical Doctor and Founder of Royal Hospital, Ho; Mr. Charles Bowmann Asamani, a Businessman; and Mr. Ekpe Kwame, a Businessman.
The rest were Mamaga Tsyrawah IV, Paramount Queen mother of Have Traditional Area; Nana Asensima, Paramount Queen mother of Apesokubi Traditional Area; and Mama Alormenu, a Divisional Queen mother of Vakpo Traditional Area.
Mr. Afeto Collins Ahadome of the Odumangama Clan of Have Traditional Area is a retired UN diplomat.
A family spokesperson who received the Volta Development Forum delegation explained that Mrs. Kufuor passed away on Sunday, October 1, 2023, at the age of 87, following an extended period of illness. The funeral is slated for November 16, 2023.
A brief profile indicates that Theresa Kufuor (born October 25, 1935) was the wife of John Agyekum Kufuor, the second President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana and former First Lady of Ghana. She was a retired nurse and midwife.
Mrs. Kufuor started her education at the Catholic Convent, OLA, at Keta in the Volta Region of Ghana. She later went to London, where she was educated as a Registered General Nurse in the Southern Hospital Group of Nursing, Edinburgh, Scotland.
After further study at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and Paddington General Hospital, London, she qualified as a state-certified midwife with a Certificate in Premature Nursing.
Theresa married John Kufuor when she was 23 years old after they met at a Republic Day anniversary dance in London in 1961. They got married in 1962. She is a mother of five and a grandmother of eight. She is a devout Roman Catholic.
Despite being the first lady of Ghana for eight years between 2001 and 2009, she managed to maintain a low profile in the political arena.
In 2007, she pushed for policy changes in the government’s white paper on educational reforms towards the implementation of UNESCO’s free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE) programme for kindergarten children.
She founded the Mother and Child Community Development Foundation (MCCDF), a non-governmental organization operating in Ghana and Canada that supports work in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
