Former First Lady Theresa Kuffour dies at age 87

Theresa Kufuor, a former first lady, has passed away, Ghanatodayonline.com has confirmed.

Theresa Kufuor, the wife of former president John Agyekum Kufuor, passed away on Sunday, October 1 at her house in Peduase while accompanied by her family, according to information obtained by Ghanatodayonline.com. She was 87 years old.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has already paid a condolence visit to former President Kufuor’s home.

Theresa Kufuor (born 25 October 1935) was a former First Lady of Ghana and the wife of John Kufuor, the second President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. She was a retired midwife and nurse.

At the Catholic Convent, OLA, in Keta in Ghana’s Volta Region, Mrs. Kufuor began her formal education. Later, she moved to London and attended the Southern Hospital Group of Nursing in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she received her education to become a Registered General Nurse.

She completed additional training at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and Paddington General Hospital in London, earning a Certificate in Premature Nursing and becoming a State Certified Midwife.

Theresa and John Kufuor met at a Republic Day Anniversary Dance in London in 1961, and they later got married when he was only 23 years old. They were wed in 1962. She has five children of her own and eight grandchildren. She is an ardent Catholic.

She was the first lady of Ghana for eight years, from 2001 to 2009, but she still managed to keep a low profile in politics.

She fought for policy modifications in the government’s white paper on educational reforms in 2007 in order to launch the free universal basic education (FCUBE) program for kindergarten students.

She established the Mother and Child Community Development Foundation (MCCDF), a non-governmental organization that supports efforts to reduce mother-to-child transmission and is active in Ghana and Canada.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com