Nana-Fosu Randall
Mrs. Nana-Fosu Randall was born in Kumasi, Ghana. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA in finance. For nearly 30 years, Nana worked with the United Nations, the last 18 years as the Chief Financial Officer with the Peace Keeping Forces. During that time she was one of the people responsible for the rebuilding and clean-up efforts following war and conflict situations in places such as Tanzania, Namibia, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Israel and Lebanon, and in Kuwait and Iraq during the Gulf War. She has seen much suffering during her service with the UN and has grown to believe that there is an alternative to war – the promotion of peace, the sharing of resources and the creation of understanding among all people.
Nana’s professional observations made her realize that violent civil conflicts always left in their wake widespread destruction of social and economic infrastructures, with a greater impact on women and children. These include poverty, disease, and lack of access to education
She commented that even though there is so much oil in Iraq that one can drown in oil slicks in the desert, some women and children go hungry. Everywhere, it is the women and children who suffer most in wars, but it was Saturday's Child, in Liberia, who crystallized Nana's resolve to do something about it.
While working for the UN in Liberia, Nana came to dread her Saturday trips to the market because the war-crippled beggars would crowd in front of the shops and she had to walk past them on her way to buy groceries. All of them tugged at her heart, but she wept for days over one teenager, to whom she privately gave the name "Ama," or Saturday's Child.
Ama, who could not have been older than 14, had no hands or feet, but she was caring for a baby. Nana asked her driver to find out what had happened to the girl. He learned that soldiers had descended on Ama's home in the night, and had dragged the entire family out into the bush. There, they were given a choice: join the military group or be shot. Ama struggled with them but was raped and shot, and her hands and feet were injured. Two weeks later, she managed to crawl to the roadside where someone found her and took her to a hospital where her gangrenous limbs had to be amputated. There, also, she discovered she was pregnant. There was no one to help her, all her family was dead, but she decided to keep the baby. Without hands or feet, she was now begging for food to keep herself and her child alive.
Another story that haunted Nana was that of a mother of three daughters. The mother was locked into a room, from which she could hear her children continually screaming in the next room. Finally, the screaming stopped. The mother learned that it was only after being raped to death, did her children fall silent.
In response to these women, mothers and daughters, Nana and a group of her friends founded Voices of African Mothers.
Dr. E.M. Debrah, Chairperson, VAM Board of Directors
Ambassador Ebenezer Moses Debrah is the son of a Methodist Minister, the Rev. Moses Kwasi Debrah who for 50 years spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Ghana stressing particularly that service directed towards providing for the needy should be the principal objective of all mankind.
Ambassador Debrah was educated at the University of Ghana, then known as the University College of the Gold Coast, and briefly at the London School of Economics, England.
He was one of the first to be appointed into the Ghana Foreign Service in 1955, before the achievement of Ghana’s independence in 1957. His Motto as a Foreign Service Officer was “service based on personal example.” He carried his father’s zeal and enthusiasm into the Foreign Service and while representing and negotiating on behalf of his country, he made the welfare needs of Ghanaians abroad his principal concern.
He served in Liberia, Egypt, United States of America, Ethiopia, Australia, with concurrent accreditation to Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea; and in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He also served as Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Ghana Civil Service.
He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Wilberforce University, Ohio; Cedar Crest College, Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina. An extract from the Citation from Cedar Crest College sums up the character and some of the achievements of Ambassador E. M. Debrah - “EBENEZER MOSES DEBRAH, Diplomat, humanist, and good neighbor: In honoring you today Cedar Crest College pays tribute to your record as a statesman and your achievement as a humanitarian, both of which exemplify your life-long commitment to the task of building bridges between nations and people. At a time when this College is adding new dimensions to its programs and its concern for the strengthening of racial understanding and mutual respect, it is singularly appropriate that we recognize your accomplishments.
“The Washington Post has described you as more responsible than any African diplomat for forging links between Africans and the Black community. You have expended great and continuing effort in helping the Black community find its roots in the conviction that once they have found them they are better Americans. In this endeavor you have traveled widely in the United States to increase understanding between our Black people and those of Africa.”
When Ambassador Debrah retired from the Foreign Service of Ghana in 1979, he continued to share his great experience in the field of diplomacy by either helping to establish or directing the training of diplomats in Zimbabwe; the Pacific countries of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Cook Islands; the Southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Namibia; and Liberia in West Africa. He has continued to serve the Government of Ghana even in his retirement as Chairman of the Ghana Civil Service Council, Chairman of the Eastern Regional Lands Commission, and Member of the Board of Directors of the Ghana Commercial Bank.
Ambassador Debrah followed his father’s footsteps of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ by serving as the First Lay Chairman of the Koforidua Diocese of the Methodist Church, Ghana, from 2001 to 2004.
The Government of the Republic of Ghana recognized the invaluable services Ambassador Debrah had rendered to Ghana and other Commonwealth and African countries by conferring on him the National Award of the Star of Ghana (Member in 2006). He had been awarded the Order of the Volta (Member) in 1975.
Ambassador Debrah visited NAVH in April 2008. He availed himself of the facilities and opportunities provided by NAVH and offered to propagate its message in his own country, Ghana.
VAM is a 501(c)3 Organization
VAM is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOCC.