FIRST LADY SALUTES OBAMA’S GRANNY First Lady Madame Gertrude Mutharika has said she was encouraged and motivated to hear how Mama Sarah Obama Foundation (MSOF) is changing lives of many less privileged children in Kenya. Madame Mutharika said this in direct reference to the Women Entrepreneurship Day organizers gesture to decorate Sarah Obama-grandmother to Barack Obama the current United States of American (USA) President with an award for her relentless effort in supporting less privileged Kenyans to access education. Sarah Obama—grandmother to US president Barack Obama—is the founder of the MSOF of Kenya that champions early childhood education in Kenya. Mutharika pledged to continue supporting efforts that are in line with her passion to bring hope to the less-privileged particularly girl child’s access to education. The First Lady said this soon after delivering her high level key note address at the launch of the World Entrepreneurship Day (WED) at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA on Wednesday. “I am delighted and feel very encouraged to interact with life changers such as Mama Sarah Obama, this reenergizes the passion I have towards the girl child education I have learnt a lot from her strong passion for education,” Mutharika said. Speaking through an interpreter, Debra Akello who doubles as MSOF Executive Director, Obama told the seminar that she has never been to school since she was born. “I have never been to school I was born a time when people then believed it’s a waste of time and resources to educate a girl child but today I say when you educate a girl you have educated the whole village,” said Obama. Obama says she believes that education is the centre for human development hence her involvement in the sector. She further said it her believe in education as central to human development that she disregarded her own illiteracy to educate all her children including Barack Obama senior the father to US President. “Although I have never been to school myself I made sure that all my children have access to education you may wish to know that I used to take Barack Obama senior to school a distance of over 6 miles of a bicycle something least expected from an illiterate village woman,” Obama said. The MSOF Founder cited lack school fees, early pregnancies and the impact of HIV/Aids as some of the challenges affecting access to girl child education in Africa. “Most of the girls do not go to schools because of lack of school fees and material support, others may drop out due to early pregnancies and a great number of children lost their parents due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic all these makes access to girl child education in Africa a challenge,” said Obama. The MSOF was established in 2009 after over three decades of untiring efforts of ensuring that poverty stricken families of Kogelo village feed and educate their children. Before her grandchild became the US leader Sarah used her own resources to pursue her dream to improve education and welfare of the less privileged in her area. The grandmother to the first US black president used the material and fund from people around the globe who came to see the village one the strongest leaders in the world came from to establish her foundation. The event held under the theme ‘Women entrepreneurship new engines for inclusive and sustainable industrial growth and rising stars of the economy in developing countries’ drew together hundreds of successful women business persons, Nongovernmental organizations and motivation speakers.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:28:51 +0000
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