The humility and fine virtues of former first lady, Sia Nyama Koroma continue to shine in the sands of time. Her warmth and friendliness still lingers in the minds of many Sierra Leoneans almost three years after her husband had left office. Sia is an embodiment of not only facial beauty but characteristics of fine behaviour.

It is safe to say in the midst of many women, she stands out. The former first lady holds a Master of Science in Bio-Chemistry and other fine papers in nursing. Despite her blend of fine academic credentials, Sia’s humility is never held into question.

She believes in self-effacement and nothing else. It is out of her strong belief in humility that she ascribes all her achievements to her Husband, former President Koroma.

Above all, she also believes in probity in public life making her to toil and not to loot. She ploughs and does not plunder, and the fruits of her plough she shares with the nation. She fits within Long Fellow’s wise saying that the heights which great men reached and kept were not attained by a sudden flight for they while their colleagues slept were toiling upward in the night.

The extraordinary contributions made by  Madam Sia Koroma to the good works of her husband, former President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma still stands as a living testimony. Since 17th September, 2007 to 4th April, 2018, the former President recorded significant successes and achievements with the support of his humble wife.

She pioneered several development initiatives with fixed focus on projects and activities for Sierra Leonean women and children throughout the last ten years. Within the principles of accountability and transparency, with support from development partners, she successfully delivered wide ranging programmes that touched many lives in Sierra Leone. Being principally concerned about reducing infant mortality in Sierra Leone, the highest in the world at that time, Sia Koroma set about transforming the health sector to save lives.

She still stands as the strongest advocate for sexual reproductive health, violence against women and children, and also paid keen attention to many gender empowerments schemes.

“I reach out to rural women,” she said in a media interview during a visit to the United States in 2012, where she identified illiteracy and poverty as real threats to the nation. Throughout her husband’s tenure as President, Mrs Koroma would visit rural women to promote family planning programmes that greatly benefited her colleague women.

As part of her effort in revamping a collapsed health sector inherited from the former administration, Madam Koroma in collaboration with development partners including World Vision International jointly unveiled the country’s Mental Health Policy.

She went extra miles in activating the Dialysis Unit at Connaught Hospital, in Freetown, with support from the State of Israel, midwifed from the bilateral ties between Sierra Leone and the State of Israel.

Mrs Koroma rolled out multiple pro-poor priority programmes ranging from Women In Safer Health (WISH), Danke Koroma Foundation, First Lady Initiative for Girls, the National Girls’ Camp among others that collectively provided access to water, sanitation, health, education, care and support for women and girls from all quarters of society and beyond.

These were all done by her office in the strongest collaboration with the line Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs. Madam Koroma is also remembered for championing global advocacy campaigns against early child marriage and worked tirelessly with traditional leaders and enhanced the promotion of reproductive health through positive cultural practices, and steadily pursued global campaigns to end all forms of violence against women and girls in Sierra Leone.

She ensured that her initiatives were legal, transparent and accountable with regular follow-up monitoring on every beneficiary of her lives touching projects, to ascertain progress that was made on every child.

Through WISH, which supported so many women and children with their healthcare needs, Madam Koroma’s drives also considerably reduced infant mortality rate in the country.

WISH specifically operated other projects including a centre in Freetown that also provides care for children, an orphanage, a medical clinic, schools and learning services for young adults amongst others to less privileged children and girls. WISH is on record for its significant role played in the reduction of maternal mortality rate in the country from 35% to 40% in 2010.

WISH also made significant social interventions that supported people who were at risk of dying of abject poverty. Thanks to the former First Lady for leaving behind such enduring legacies.

Despite challenges her office faced at that time, Mrs Koroma however focused on the sustenance of services she provided to women, and girls and children under-five, lactating mothers and pregnant women. Opportunities she took to every child in the country as part of her avowed aspirations to enable every child better themselves. With the vision to lend constant support to the achievements of her husband, former president Koroma, her job as First Lady was never a jolly ride but hectic, selfless, transparent and accountable to the nation.

No wonder she still enjoys respect and admiration among Sierra Leoneans. Many still call him in the Krio parlance, MAMA meaning mother of the nation.  Going forward her passionate though challenging humanitarian tasks, Mrs Koroma’s office attracted support from United Nations Fund for Population Activities, World Health Organization, Plan International, Care International, Marie Stopes International and other global charitable organizations.

Through firm partnerships with development partners, she also secured medical support for the eradication of HIV/AIDS, a scheme that tremendously benefitted the nation. The Danke Koroma Foundation, named after her mother, formed one of key components of programmes that were initiated and undertaken by former First Lady, Madam Sia Koroma.

She worked within the confines of the law taking into cognisance, transparency and accountability for every Leone spent, and justified every claim.

Well managed by trained and qualified health professionals, the Danke Koroma Foundation as well as all other project, demonstrated transparency and accountability in all its operations. The foundation equally worked very well with women and needy children, especially trauma victims (girls of the brutal civil war).

Madam Koroma’s initiatives also mitigated teenage pregnancy, amongst girls, scaled up the provision of care and support to the aged, offered so many scholarships to the girl-child and enabled women to access education and the list goes on.

Also added to her immense contributions to the achievements of the presidency, the former First Lady ensured drastic reduction of the death of women and girls as well as less privileged people, which made her initiatives key sources of support to her husbands’ administration.

MAMA, as she is still called, through her display of humility won the trust and confidence of development partners through her timely and successful implementations of worthy intervention programmes for women and girls.

These achievements make Sia Koroma stand out among present and future generations of first ladies in Sierra Leone.

Her works are enduring legacies for which she would be remembered for generations yet to come. She has attained a good reputation for tending to the poor with respect and dignity.

A brief synopsis of the transparency and accountability of the former First Lady is relevant here. Madam Sia Nyama Koroma professionally and successfully handled the affairs of Office of the First Lady, from 17th September, 2007 to 4th April, 2018. These have however left the public, development partners, the few reaming upright civic activists and the international systems with the choice of referring to Mrs Sia Nyama Koroma as a humble, accountable and transparent servant of the people and her country.