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Georgina Naa Odarkaa Lamptey: Turning kindness into a lifelong mission
For years, Georgina Naa Odarkaa Lamptey has quietly invested in the lives of children whose dreams could easily have been cut short by financial hardship.
She has paid school fees, supported medical expenses, provided health insurance and transportation, and helped children remain in school.
Through the Eastbourne Foundation, she has supported more than 10 children over the years and currently assists about five.
But behind her commitment to helping others is a deeply personal story of a woman who once received a helping hand herself and made a decision never to forget it.
“If somebody has done that for me, I need to do it for somebody,” she says.
That belief has become the driving force behind her philanthropic work.
The Eastbourne Foundation was established five years ago to support children in need, particularly those facing financial difficulties that could prevent them from continuing their education.
For Georgina, the work is not about a child’s tribe, background or social status. What matters is genuine need.
When cases are brought to the attention of those who assist with the foundation’s work in Ghana, the welfare committee of the foundation assess the circumstances and inform her. She then provides financial support where necessary.
Her support has gone beyond paying school fees. For some beneficiaries, she has taken responsibility for health insurance, transportation to and from school, medical expenses and other educational needs.
Her motivation, she says, comes from her own background and life experiences.
“If you have help, you can get somewhere,” she says. “There are people who can do things, but without help, they may not get the opportunity to become what they can be.”
For Georgina, helping a child is therefore not merely an act of charity; it is an investment in human potential.
Her journey of supporting others has not always produced the outcomes she hoped for. One girl she supported was exceptionally brilliant. Georgina followed her educational journey closely and provided support for her schooling and other needs.
But as the girl approached graduation, family circumstances changed and she eventually disappeared from Georgina’s life. The experience was deeply painful.
In another case, Georgina supported a girl from primary school through senior high school. After the girl completed school, a misunderstanding arose between Georgina and the beneficiary’s family concerning the assistance she had received.
The relationship broke down and the support could no longer continue.
Such experiences have taught her about disappointment and human nature. Yet, they have not stopped her from helping.
“I don’t think that is a deterrent to helping somebody,” she says. “You can’t have everything right. So I still do it.”
For Georgina, disappointment should not destroy the desire to do good.
Her passion for helping children is rooted in her own experience.
When she was preparing to train as a community health nurse, one of her pastors, Emmanuel Aladira, came to her aid.
The course was a three-year programme, and the pastor helped her obtain the items she needed for school, purchasing enough to support her throughout the training. The gesture made a lasting impression on her.
Years later, as she became professionally established, she remembered that someone had once looked at her potential and decided that she was worth supporting.
She came to believe that she, too, had a responsibility to do the same for others.
Born and bred in Adedeinkpo, a suburb of Jamestown, Accra, Georgina began her education at Ayalolo Cluster of School and completed her middle school education with distinction and was among only two pupils in her class to achieve that feat.
Yet, her journey was not always straightforward.
After completing school, she stayed home for some time and briefly tried her hand at catering. She did not enjoy it.
Then one day, a friend told her she had applied to nursing school and encouraged Georgina to do the same.
She took the chance and that decision changed her life.
She performed exceptionally well in the national entrance examination, placing second in the country, and in 1982 began training as a community health nurse.
After graduating, she returned to Accra and began working at Princess Marie Louise Hospital, popularly known as the Children’s Hospital. Her ambition, however, did not end there.
When she heard that a former classmate had written the General Certificate examination and passed, she challenged herself to do the same.
“If she can do it, then so can I,” she reasoned.
She studied for seven months, wrote the examination and performed well enough to continue her education.
Her determination produced remarkable results. During her nursing training, she emerged as the highest-performing student in the country in her first year. When she graduated in 1992, she again excelled in practical nursing.
She later trained as a midwife and practiced for about 25 years before travelling to the United States.
Even as she approaches retirement, Georgina is thinking about how she can continue giving back.
She currently supports about five children through the Eastbourne Foundation and hopes to expand her community work after retirement.
She plans to establish a reading club where children can come after school for help with their homework and improve their reading skills.
She is also considering starting a non-denominational Sunday school to reach children in the community who may need spiritual, educational and social support.
Her vision is to create a space where children can be welcomed, fed, guided and encouraged to become the best version of themselves.
For Georgina, retirement will therefore not mark the end of service, but rather offer an opportunity to do even more.
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
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For Ms Fafa Gozo, being alive is a blessing she no longer takes for granted. Having faced breast cancer and endured the challenges of treatment, she has learnt to appreciate life differently, embrace change and find strength in an experience she once feared would end her life.
“If you ask me how to describe my life today, I would say well, because I am alive,” she said.
Although her life is no longer the same as it was before her diagnosis, she is grateful for the opportunity to live and make the most of each day.
Before breast cancer, Ms Gozo described herself as a happy woman who balanced her responsibilities as a mother, wife and career woman. However, her life changed when she discovered a lump in her breast while breastfeeding her youngest child.
She sought medical attention, and further examinations led to a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. The news was difficult to accept, particularly as she had a young child and family responsibilities to consider.
Chemotherapy began almost immediately. The treatment weakened her body, and she had to return to the hospital for further care.
Beyond medication, she needed emotional strength to cope with the physical and psychological demands of the experience. Nevertheless, she continued with treatment, drawing strength from her faith and determination to live.
May 2022 marked the end of her chemotherapy, bringing relief after months of treatment. In June, she began another phase of her journey, focusing on recovery and rebuilding her life.
Healing was gradual, requiring physical and emotional adjustments. Just when she thought the worst was over, another health concern arose; bringing renewed anxiety and the need for further medical attention.
The experience taught her that recovery does not always follow a straight path. It requires patience, courage and the willingness to face uncertainty.
Despite the difficulties, Ms Gozo has chosen to embrace the woman she has become rather than dwell on what she has lost.
“The old Fafa is gone, but I am loving the new Fafa. I appreciate the new Fafa more and take life easy because now I know life is very short and very vulnerable. Everyone is at risk,” she said. Read More.
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
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From Doryumu to two Bars: The remarkable journey of Lawyer Nyarkotey Obu
From the quiet communities of Doryumu and Dodowa in the Shai-Osudoku area of Greater Accra to courtrooms in two West African countries, Lawyer Raphael Nyarkotey Obu’s story is one of unusual professional reinvention. 
On Friday, October 9, 2026, the naturopathic scholar was called to the Ghana Bar, following his earlier admission to the Bar in The Gambia in November 2024.
The milestone places him in a pioneering position. He has been reported as the first African naturopath to qualify as a lawyer in two West African countries—an achievement that combines natural medicine, academic leadership and legal training in a way rarely seen on the continent.
Beyond the ceremonial wig and gown, however, lies a larger question: how will he use the law to improve the regulation of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) in Africa?
The early journey
Nyarkotey traces his roots to Doryumu in the Shai-Osudoku district. Part of his childhood was spent with his grandmother in the Suhum-Amrahia area, before his family journey took him to Teshie Lascala, where he began his basic education.
He later attended Ghanata Secondary School, Dodowa. These formative experiences preceded a career that would take him from classrooms in Ghana to professional legal training in Banjul and clinical and academic engagements in Asia.
Those beginnings matter because his achievements did not emerge from a single, straightforward professional path. He first built a name in Ghana’s developing natural medicine sector as an educator, researcher, author and advocate for stronger standards.
Education and difficult questions
That conviction informed the establishment and development of Nyarkotey College of Holistic Medicine in Ashaiman. The institution pursued structured professional education and competency-based training, including work connected to national occupational standards for naturopathy and holistic medicine.
Yet its growth brought the challenge familiar to emerging health professions: educational ambitions can advance faster than the laws governing those who complete the training.
The College faced questions within Ghana’s tertiary education regulatory environment, while Nyarkotey also became involved in a public dispute with the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC).
At the centre was disagreement over the reach of the Traditional Medicine Practice Act, 2000 (Act 575), and its application to naturopathy and other complementary and alternative medicine disciplines. The dispute entered the courts, where the interpretation of statutory authority remains a matter for legal determination.
Why he studied law
It was against this backdrop that law became increasingly central to his work. After obtaining his law degree, Nyarkotey proceeded to the Gambia Law School and was called to the Gambian Bar in November 2024. He subsequently completed the route to admission in Ghana, culminating in the October 2026 ceremony. The second Bar call gives his professional story an especially Ghanaian significance: the legal questions that shaped his ambitions can now be addressed with the benefit of Ghanaian legal qualification.
The distinction is noteworthy, but he regards it as a means rather than an end. His interest is not simply in representing individual practitioners. He wants to contribute to laws that separate legitimate professional training from unsupported claims, define safe scopes of practice, provide fair disciplinary processes and protect patients. The objective, he argues, should be regulation that is firm, clear and suitable for Africa’s diverse healthcare landscape.
India and a wider horizon
In August 2026, Nyarkotey led 16 Ghanaian naturopaths to India for clinical immersion at Arujiva Ayurveda and Naturopathy Hospital in Karnataka. Their exposure included Ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, nutrition and lifestyle-based care.
Subsequent interactions with Indian universities and professional institutions widened the educational exchange. For him, the visit offered a practical view of how training, research, hospitals and public policy can interact within established traditional medicine systems.
India also supplied a lesson in patience. Nyarkotey recalls being told by an Indian colleague that gaining recognition for an educational institution can involve years of persistence. He drew from that conversation a renewed commitment to documentation, programme quality, clinical preparation and continued regulatory engagement. 
QAI partnership and standards
A recent development is the College’s Memorandum of Understanding with India’s Quality and Accreditation Institute (QAI). The partnership is intended to support quality assurance, curriculum improvement and professional development across naturopathy and related complementary medicine disciplines. It marks a shift from pursuing recognition principally through advocacy towards building systems that can be independently assessed.
For Nyarkotey, the agreement offers a platform for developing that quality culture while respecting the jurisdiction of Ghana’s own educational and professional regulators.
An African professional agenda
His thinking has also become continental. In March 2026, representatives associated with naturopathy from 11 African countries established the African Naturopathic Federation, with Nyarkotey as founding president.
The Federation seeks to advance professional education, research, ethics and cooperation. Its potential lies in helping African countries discuss common training benchmarks while allowing each country’s laws, institutions and healthcare needs to shape implementation.
Nyarkotey is additionally promoting an India–Africa AYUSH Centre for Education, Research and Regulatory Cooperation. The proposed platform would connect African institutions and policymakers with Indian expertise, not only in training and clinical exposure but also in standards, research and responsible investment.
He believes African traditional knowledge and India’s institutional experience can form a productive partnership without either being treated as a substitute for scientific scrutiny or patient safety.
A law firm with a specialised mission
Perhaps his most distinctive future plan is a law firm devoted substantially to TCAM and healthcare regulation. He envisages advising governments, professional bodies, colleges, hospitals, clinics and businesses on legislation, registration, licensing, contracts, institutional compliance, patient rights and professional accountability.
He also hopes to assist African countries seeking to draft or modernise legal frameworks for traditional, complementary and alternative medicine.
That ambition follows naturally from his own encounters with overlapping institutions and contested regulatory mandates. More coherent frameworks could clarify which authority regulates practitioners, which oversees academic qualifications and which controls medicinal products.
Such separation would help protect the public while creating lawful pathways for properly trained professionals. Any reform, however, will require consultation with health authorities, patients, conventional medical professionals and complementary medicine stakeholders.
An achievement and a responsibility
Nyarkotey’s story is not free of controversy. His positions on regulation have attracted criticism, and his institution has faced scrutiny. A balanced assessment must recognise those disputes without allowing them to erase the work he has undertaken.
Nor should international partnerships, professorial titles or two Bar calls be mistaken for proof that every proposal is sound. His legacy will depend on the standards he helps establish and the results they produce.
From Doryumu, Dodowa, Suhum-Amrahia and Teshie Lascala to Ghanata Secondary School, Banjul, India and the Ghana Bar, the arc of his journey is striking.
Yet its next chapter may matter more than its earlier honours. If his legal training helps African countries adopt workable TCAM legislation, if his educational partnerships deliver measurable quality, and if his proposed specialist practice contributes to patient protection, the impact will extend far beyond one individual.
The first African naturopath to have qualified as a lawyer in two West African countries now faces a larger professional assignment: turning a remarkable personal achievement into durable legal and educational progress for natural medicine across Africa.
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