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The First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, has stated that the recognition of her work for empowering women and helping the poor by the Fordham University in the United States, is an honour to Ghanaian women.

Mrs Mahama is scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters at the University’s 170th Commencement at its Rose Hill campus in New York City on Saturday, May 16, 2015.

She said the award was dedicated to all Ghanaian women, who by nature are hardworking, with many of them being agents of change.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, prior to her departure to the United States, Mrs Mahama said the award would spur her on to relentlessly pursue her goal of improving the standard of living of women and children in the country.

The First Lady will also deliver the keynote address to the Class of 2015 at the university.

Information on the website of the university described Mrs Mahama as an internationally respected advocate for empowering women and helping the poor and marginalised.

The university said as President of the Lordina Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that works with partner companies and agencies to make health care more accessible in Ghana and to expand educational opportunities, Mrs Mahama’s work embraced many pressing public health and educational issues.

“In conferring an honorary degree upon Mrs Mahama, it is we who are honoured,” said Joseph M. McShane, SJ, President of Fordham. “Her work with women and children in Ghana and across Africa reminds us of persistence of kindness and the will to make a difference in the world.”

The university further commended her effort to provide medical supplies, including an ambulance to a number of hospitals and health facilities, as well as her work to prevent breast and cervical cancers and HIV infection in Africa.

Mrs Mahama is also known to help provide shelter and vocational training in northern Ghana for women accused of witchcraft who are shunned by their communities.

She also provides food, clothing and support to seven orphanages in parts of the country.

The First Lady is also the first Vice-President of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA) for West Africa, and is the premier ambassador of the UNAIDS Global Plan on the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission.

Last year, she was honoured with a Global Inspiration Leadership Award and inducted into the Global Women Leaders Hall of Fame at the second Africa-Middle East-Asia Women Summit in Dubai, organised by the Centre for Economic and Leadership Development and the CEO Clubs Network worldwide.

Among her other honours is an award for her anti-cervical cancer advocacy in Namibia and Mozambique.