Former First Lady of Ghana, Theresa Kufuor, Dies at 88

Theresa, the former First Lady and wife of John Agyekum Kufuor, dies at the age of 88.

According to Asaase Radio, the ex-First Lady passed away earlier today, Sunday, October 1, 2023.

“Her husband, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, was at home when his 55-year-old wife died.” Mrs. Kufuor has not been well in recent years,” according to the newspaper.

“Incidentally, President Nana Akufo-Addo had travelled to the mountains to pay a visit to the former President and her passing is said to have happened shortly before the President arrived.”

Theresa Kufuor (née Mensah; born 25 October 1935) is the wife of John Kufuor, the second President of Ghana’s Fourth Republic. She is a retired nurse and midwife.

Theresa Kufuor (née Mensah; born 25 October 1935) is the wife of John Kufuor, the second President of Ghana’s Fourth Republic. She is a retired nurse and midwife.

Education

Kufuor began her education at the OLA Catholic Convent in Keta, Ghana’s Volta Region. Later, she relocated to London to pursue a career as a Registered General Nurse at the Southern Hospital Group of Nursing. Edinburgh is a Scottish city.

After further studies at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and Paddington General Hospital in London, she became a State Certified Midwife with a Certificate in Premature Nursing.

Personal life

Theresa married John Kufuor when he was 23 years old, after meeting at a Republic Day Anniversary Dance in London in 1961. They married in 1962. Her five children with former Ghanaian President John Kufuor are J. Addo Kufuor, Nana Ama Gyamfi, Saah Kufuor, Agyekum Kufuor, and Owusu Afriyie Kufuor. She is the mother of five children and grandmother to eight grandkids. She is a devout Roman Catholic.

Despite serving as Ghana’s first lady for eight years, from 2001 to 2009, she has maintained a modest political presence. In the Government’s White Paper on Educational Reforms in 2007, she called for policy reforms to implement UNESCO’s Free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE) plan for kindergarten children.

She founded the Mother and Child Community Development Foundation (MCCDF), a non-governmental organisation that works in Ghana and Canada to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

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to October 25, Pope Benedict XVI awarded the Papal Award of Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great to her husband, President John Kufuor, in appreciation of his unwavering dedication to mankind and the Catholic Church as a whole.[12] Theresa Kufuor was awarded the Popel Award Dame of St Gregory the Great for her commitment to the welfare of impoverished children and their mothers.