Ernestina Naadu Mills

Ernestina Naadu Mills (née Botchway) is a Ghanaian educator and former First Lady of Ghana. She was the wife of former Ghanaian president John Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2012), and is the recipient of a Humanitarian award from the Health Legend Foundation. She was also the Second Lady of Ghana from 1996 to 2001. She taught for 33 years, teaching in schools such as Aburi Girls' Senior High School, Achimota School and Holy Trinity Cathedral Senior High School. She has been honored in other countries and in Ghana for her contribution to children's education.

Early life and education Ernestina Naadu Botchway was born in Accra to Cornelius Teye Botchway, a cocoa businessman and Madam Alberta Abetso Abbey, both natives of Prampram a town in the Greater Accra Region. Mills attended Aburi Girl's Secondary School on a full scholarship granted by the then Cocoa Marketing Board now Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), after successfully passing her Common Entrance Examination. After receiving her GCE Ordinary Level certificate, she spent two years training as a teacher at the Specialist Training College (STC) in Winneba.

Career Upon completing her teacher training course at Specialist Training College (STC) in Winneba, she taught at Kotobabi (One) Mixed Middle School for two years. She later taught at the Holy Trinity Cathedral School and Achimota School. She has taught for 33 years.

First Lady of Ghana When John Evans Mills was elected president of Ghana in 2009, she became the First Lady on 7 January 2009 when he was sworn into office. She served in that role from January 2009 to July 2012, working to ensure to improve the access and quality of education of underprivileged children and enhancing girl child education in Ghana. Her husband died on 24 July 2012 while in office.

Free School Uniform Initiative In December 2009, Mills launched the Free School Uniform initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development as an initiative earmarked to distribute 1.6 million school uniforms to 77 deprived districts in Ghana.

Girl Child Activism Mills being an educationist, throughout her work as both second lady and especially first lady, she was known to be an activist for the girl child and girl child education, including when she made emphatic statements on the importance of investing in girl child educationat the Crans Montana Forum in Brussels, Belgium in April 2010, she stated that; " Investing in girl-child education has immediate and long term benefits. It does not only build the assertiveness of the girls, it also builds self-confidence and empowers them to properly position themselves to be active participants in nation building,"— "As an educationist, my joy knows no bounds when I see girls excel and as First Ladies and agenda shapers of our respective countries, we must resolve to continue to give more meaning to girl-child education and not only pay lip service to it."

Foundation for Child Education Mills set up a Non-governmental organisation called the Foundation for Child Education Ghana (FCEG) whilst she was First Lady. The organisation's focus was to help put Ghana's attainment of the Millennium Development Goal 2, which sought to attain universal education by end of 2015. thumb Through the organisation, on 11 November 2011, she handed over a school complex she had put up in Bornikope, a coastal community in the Dangbe East District of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana to the chiefs and community leaders. She spoke at the conference and made calls on the need for countries to emphasize their attention on issues relating to youth development. Under her role as a first lady she spoke about youth unemployment deepening poverty in developing countries and asked for well thought through measures to be put in place to help provide jobs for the youth worldwide.

Philanthropy work

SHS Students’ Bible Project In June 2013, Mills launched the Senior High School (SHS) Students’ Bible Project, an initiative in partnership with the Scripture Union (SU) Ghana, and Tyndale Publishers where a total of 500,000 Bibles, printed by the Tyndale House Publishers in the United States (USA), at a cost of GH¢10,000, was to be shared among SHS students by the Scripture Union (SU) Ghana. The Project was initiated as a way to help imbibe spiritual and moral values needed to push the country forward into the Ghanaian youth considering an apparent decade of moral values in the Ghanaian you. Being a firm believer of the word of God she stated at that My late husband and I loved God’s word and after his demise, the Bible remains my most important source of comfort and encouragement; by the word of God, you can overcome any challenge that you face in life and it will help you take responsibility of your own lives Aburi Girls SHS in the Eastern Region, Yaa Asantewaa Girls SHS in the Ashanti Region, Sunyani SHS in the Brong Ahafo Region, Bolgatanga Girls SHS in the Upper East Region, Bole SHS in Savannah Region The couple have a son. Mills is a Christian and she worships with the Legon Interdenominational Church (LIC) located at the University of Ghana, Legon.

In October 2014, she was honoured with an Eagle Award under the Honorary Legendary Award Category from the Health Legend Foundation for her work and contribution to the health sector whilst First and Second Lady of Ghana.