Former Second Lady Launches Book

By Lawrence Markwei

Former Second Lady, Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur has launched a book depicting her benevolent activities before, during and after her tenure of office.

The book titled "The Wife of the Vice-President: My Journey, which was fore-worded by Nana Kobina Nketsia, the Omanhene of Essikado Traditional Area, and published by Winmat Publishers Limited was more pictorial to emphasise the work of the Second Lady, who was a professional librarian.

Giving her inspirational speech about what led to the authoring of the book before the official launch by Mrs Florence Hutchful, Mrs Amissah-Arthur said despite so many things which compete for our attention daily, the choice we make in impacting on the life of others could to some extent define our roles in life.

She said the competition in our daily life choices could easily leave us astray to look after our own benefits and not pay attention to the need of others saying "the choices we make are very important because to some extent those choices define us."

Mrs Amissah-Arthur said she was compelled into benevolence and philanthropism since childhood and has harboured the idea of an orphanage to give children hope through love, support and education adding that the support for homes and orphanages begun with her work at the university.

"Seeing, how children did not read and in some cases could not read, I made the choice in 1999 to help children acquire reading skills to be able to read and enjoy reading," she said.

She said to sustain the reading interest of the children, she helped the children acquire books in their schools and communities saying that also led to support of less privileged women to build their skills to earn living to support their children.

Mrs Amissah-Arthur said as the journey continued, support from charity organisations also impressed upon her to provide rural hospitals and clinics with basic medical supplies saying, "through the exchanges of love with the children and women I worked with around the country, I was blessed with a great sense of fulfilment."

She said it was after the husband's term of office that she decided to tell her story through the photographs captured on those occasions because, "a picture is worth a thousand words."

The first copy of the book was bought for GH¢50,000.00 while most of the copies at the auditorium were picked up by patrons of the event at undisclosed amounts.

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