American varsity honours Kidero’s wife for helping women and girls
Dr Susan Mboya-Kidero, wife of Nairobi Governor Evan Kidero, when she was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston, USA, for her work in helping women and girls. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Mrs Kidero could not hide her joy on after being awarded an honorary doctorate.
- She has a PhD in Industrial Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
- In 2009, she received another honorary degree from Lakeland College in the US.
- Ms Kidero also founded the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund in 2002.
The University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston, USA, has conferred an honorary degree on Nairobi Governor Evan Kidero’s wife, Susan Mboya-Kidero for her work in helping women and girls.
Dr Mboya, who attended a dinner at the Edward M Kennedy Institute in Boston, could not hide her joy at the honour.
“I feel most humbled and honoured to receive this honorary doctorate from a University that plays such a big part in developing the potential and talent of tens of thousands of students from all over the world.
“I share this honour with all of the wonderful women and girls whom I worked with in the past and whose courage and persistence has been key to the success of the programmes for which I am being honoured,” she said in a statement.
INSPIRATION
“Dr Mboya is an inspiration, who exemplifies the ideals and values that we hope our graduates will uphold and nurture,” said the university’s chancellor, J Keith Motley.
Dr Mboya also attended a luncheon at the UMass Club in Boston given in her honour by the dean of the McCormick School of Policy and Global Studies during which she addressed 35 invited prominent women leaders.
She is currently the group director of the Eurasia Africa Group for women’s economic empowerment at Coca-Cola, and the president of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF).
She leads the deployment of TCCAF initiatives and the 5by20 initiative, a global effort to economically empower five million women by 2020.
Dr Mboya has forged public-private partnerships with the IFC, USAid, Plan UK, DFID, Technoserve, MercyCorps and others to help resource, fund, and provide technical expertise for the 5by20 programme, raising over $116 million.
To date, 5by20 has empowered more than 270,000 women in the more than 90 countries that make up the Eurasia Africa Group.
Dr Mboya also founded the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund in 2002.
To date, the programme has provided full scholarships to over 360 students in over 65 colleges and universities, including Yale University, Harvard, MIT, Smith, Duke, McGill University, the University of Toronto, the University of Cape Town and Kwame Nkrumah University in Ghana.
Dr Mboya earned a PhD in industrial pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
In 2009, she received an honorary degree from Lakeland College in the US.
