Cosmopolitan Widows Empowerment Centre (Guarantors of Grace), under the umbrella of the Cosmopolitan Aid Foundation, was established in Ghana as a charitable Trust Deed, duly registered on 21st February 2014 at the Registrar-General's Department in Accra with the registration number CG089012014. On 16th January 2015, the foundation's name was changed from Mawuena Foundation to Cosmopolitan Aid Foundation.

This foundation is formed as a community-based strategic group for the empowerment of widows to learn how to make an independent and gainful living to cater for themselves and their children. It also provides a voice platform for action on the concerns of widows, social justice, poverty reduction, and sustainable development practices.

Widows suffer greatly in society; they are relegated to the background economically, socially, and culturally as a result of the situation in which they find themselves, such as economic burden, single parenthood, and loneliness.

The inspiration came from the manner in which many widows are unjustly and unfairly treated in this part of the world, coupled with the increasingly earlier age at which women are becoming widows as a result of accidents, armed conflicts, and very dangerous infectious diseases, including but not limited to HIV and Ebola, leaving them to educate their children single-handedly.

Our philosophy is based on the reality that every human being is a unique individual and that we all have a right to good health and basic needs and should access means to a comfortable life in one way or another.

This will be done through training centres, a micro-financing agency, and a scholarship programme for their children to attend school.

The project involves capacity building and skill development, as well as loans to start up a business based on the skills developed. It will also provide awareness on legal rights as well as health and hygiene. We hope to inspire the women we work with to take ownership of their future and earn a sustainable income so they can look after their families and provide for them. By listening to their stories, talking to them, and giving them the emotional support they need, we can help these women move forward and look to the future.

Through workshops and training sessions, we hope to help the women develop new skills, whether they be practical skills like tailoring and hairdressing or soft skills like the art of sales, negotiations, and teamwork. This will help the women become more employable or give them a solid business grounding to make their business succeed and ultimately profitable.

The widows also suffering from the effects of HIV/AIDS will have access to our free HIV/AIDS clinics and free AIDS medicine. Healthy food, vitamins, and mosquito nets will be provided for them. Most of these women do not have the strength to grow more and better food, and they cannot pay for mosquito nets or vitamin supplements.

Funds for emergency trips to the hospital will be provided because women and children suffering from AIDS fall sick more often and more severely than other people. In addition to the cost of transportation, visiting the doctor and getting medicine costs money, money they normally do not have, resulting in either debt or death. We will address the issues raised by the members of the HIV/AIDS group and together we will come up with a plan. We will partner with UN Women to bring its advocacy power, technical knowledge, and presence on the ground to provide better economic opportunities and enhance the voices of widows.

The Foundation will be calling on governments to fill the gaps in data collection on numbers, ages, lifestyles, needs, and roles of widows, to include “widows” as a specific category in national action plans, as well as criminalise all actions by state or non-state actors that deprive widows of their rights or coerce them into degrading, life-threatening, and harmful traditional practices.

This is done through awareness programmes, radio/TV projects, training/capacity building, advocacy, research, publication, media, networking, and consulting services.

This project will lead to sustainability for the single women and their children. When we fully engage people in their own development in an authentic way, they have real ownership and power to change their lives and the lives of the people around them. With this project, we will be complementing the government’s efforts towards reducing poverty in society.

The Board of Trustees of the Cosmopolitan Aid Foundation, led by Dr. Emmanuel Yao Voado, MD, the Founder, will select the Management Committee that will see to the day-to-day administration of the centre. He is a Ghanaian neurosurgeon trained in Cuba. He was the medical doctor who first opened a neurosurgical service in the country of Belize. He practised there for 5 years and worked in the United States for 6 years before relocating to Africa in September 2013. He is working diligently on the cure of Spinal Cord Injuries.

The Cosmopolitan Widows Empowerment Centre will be headquartered in Tsopoli in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana.

Africa is the second-largest continent, covering about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq. mi), after Asia, in terms of size and population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos.

The population of Africa was estimated at 1.50 billion people as of 2024, accounting for about 16.64% of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; 50% of Africans are 19 years old or younger. The median age is 19.4 years. 41% of the population is urban. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is the largest by population.

Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago.

History:

Around 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt. One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.

Climate:

Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence, where vegetation patterns such as Sahel and steppe dominate. Africa is the hottest continent on earth, and 60% of the entire land surface consists of dry lands and deserts.

Politics:

Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, nine territories, and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. Connected with the Indian Ocean, the islands of Africa are the Union of the Comoros, the Republic of Madagascar, the Republic of Seychelles, and the Republic of Mauritius. In the Atlantic Ocean, we have the Republic of Cape Verde and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. Others are Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, and Eritrea.

The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. Improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment in many African nations, mainly from China, which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly ending decades of stagnation and decline.

Some seven African countries are in the top 10 fastest-growing economies in the world. If you look at countries like Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Togo – all of those markets have shown exceptional growth and real stability, and with that, you almost get a new investment climate for these countries. This allows you to have a new emerging middle class, and with that comes a very vibrant entrepreneurship culture, businessmen or women who want access to technology and to innovate.

Natural Resources:

The continent is believed to hold 90% of the world's cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite, 64% of its manganese, and one-third of its uranium. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world's coltan, a mineral used in the production of tantalum capacitors for electronic devices such as cell phones. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world's diamond reserves. Guinea is the world's largest exporter of bauxite.

Economy:

From 1995 to 2005, Africa's rate of economic growth increased, averaging 5% in 2005. Some countries experienced still higher growth rates, notably Angola, Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea, all of which had recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded their oil extraction capacity.

Several African economies are among the world’s fastest-growing as of 2011. As of 2013, these are some of the African countries growing by more than 5.0% in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These are South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, Mozambique, Eritrea, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Gabon, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Congo, Zambia, Angola, Uganda, Togo, Nigeria, Morocco, and Kenya.

Africa really has the ideal conditions for steady economic growth. A skyrocketing population made up of predominantly younger people is the perfect recipe for a booming economy.

In 2018, we continue to see the same trend for population growth. Compared to 2017, Africa’s overall population has increased by more than 30 million – 1,256,268,025 in 2017 versus 1,287,920,518 in 2018.

The World Bank’s projections for sub-Saharan Africa area. According to their 2018 projections for the continent: regional GDP growth of 3.2% (compared to 2.4% last year) is expected this year, and an even greater increase of 3.5% is forecasted for 2019.

That’s why keeping an eye out for the top African countries with the fastest economic growth in 2018 is a total must for every potential investor. The abundance of natural resources and a young workforce is what has driven the economic surge on the continent in recent years.

A significant number of 2018’s top performers are non-commodity intensive economies. The list is led by Ghana, followed by Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire, with Senegal, Tanzania, and Djibouti occupying the fourth, fifth, and sixth spots respectively. Africa has six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies this year, according to the World Bank.

The latest forecast places the East African country, Ethiopia, at 8.2 percent, with the West African nation, Ghana, leading the continent at 8.3 percent. Topping the list from the first to the tenth position are: Ghana, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Benin, Rwanda, and Niger.

As the growth in Africa has been driven mainly by services and not manufacturing or agriculture, it has been growth without jobs and without a reduction in poverty levels.

Born in 1971 to a Christian family of scarce resources in Tefle, Volta Region, Ghana, he always dreamed of breaking the backbone of poverty through education. At the age of 12, he received a prophecy that he would go abroad to further his education. In 1985, at age 14, the prophecy was fulfilled, but not without difficulties. After taking the exams to send students to Cuba, he placed first in his district but was unlawfully replaced by the son of the most powerful politician in the district. A concerned citizen sent him to the office of President Jerry John Rawlings, where he was allowed to participate in the national test, in which he came first. This event was indeed a shock to many.

He was in Cuba for 17 years, progressing from junior high school to medical school and subsequently to the postgraduate specialist course in Neurosurgery. While in Cuba as a student, he continued his brilliant academic work; he won many awards, including best student in Chemistry at the Cuban National Level Quizzes for three consecutive years, where students from 35 countries were studying. He wrote an Organic Chemistry book intended for the preparation of high-performance students who aspired to participate in the World Olympiad of Chemistry. He graduated summa cum laude (first) in all levels of education, including medical school and the specialty of Neurosurgery. At the end of his neurosurgical training, he wrote another book in the field of Spinal Surgery called Lumbosacral Discopathies.

When he completed the Neurosurgical course in 2001, the people of Belize found him and took him to their country as they needed neurosurgical services, which they had never had the privilege of enjoying locally. He performed simple and complex surgeries on many people, including the elite of Belize, with no surgical mortality in his five consecutive years of practice. In the USA, under Dr Robert Grossman, a well-known neurosurgeon, he worked as a Clinical Research Specialist and was invited by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons of America to present six papers at their international conferences.

He is a Belizean and American citizen by naturalisation. After 28 years, he has decided to return to Africa to help his people, as he has come to the convincing realisation that he is more needed here than in the United States of America.

As a matter of fact, the finances are coming from our own sources, but as the vision progresses, we hope to get both local and international donors to help us accomplish the full extension of the programmes we have envisaged.