GTA woman made a Ghanian queen due to work on orphanage

A Milton woman who has devoted herself to improving life for orphans in Ghana has been made a queen in the West African country.

Ginger Gyimah-Boakye has travelled to Ghana several times and is now trying to open an orphanage there for 300 homeless children.

It’s a project she can relate to having grown up in foster care.

“Going there brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “The children just really captured my heart.”

For the past few months Gyimah-Boakye has been collecting any donations she can, from clothing and household items to medical supplies.

Her efforts resulted in her being honoured as a Queen Mother, a developmental queen, whose responsibility it is to help the village community grow.

She has also been given the Ghanaian name Nana Akua Makafui, and is in the process of taking it as her legal name.

Gyimah-Boakye said she knew from a young age that Africa was the homeland of her heart.

“I love the culture, I love the foods,” she said. “I really have embraced the whole culture and taken it on as my own.”

Her hope is to have the orphanage up and running by the end of October.

“And each trip that I go there, I will go to the orphanage” she said. “Some of the children there already call me Mama, so it’s really an extension of my family.”

For more information about the orphanage, visit the Dove of Hope Ministries website.