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Sunday, May 10, 2015 will be observed in some parts of the world including Ghana, as Mother’s Day.

To this end, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), Nana Oye Lithur, has congratulated mothers. 

In a message, she commended women for “their resilience, fortitude and hard work.” 

She especially commended “single mothers for their unwavering love and commitment to their children’s welfare”. 

Nana Oye Lithur also mentioned “career women who leave home early and come late daily for the sake of the family”, and wished them “a happy Mothers’ Day”. 

She also extended similar greetings to “women in farming communities, who work in the sun and in the rain to raise scholars for this country”. 

She acknowledged the hard work of market women, who defy all odds in the interest of the family, as well as women in the formal and informal sectors and wished them well.

The minister pledged her ministry’s continuous effort “to create an enabling legal environment for all Ghanaian women”. 

She said the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection would “push for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill” and “ensure that the Intestate Succession Bill is passed and receives presidential assent”. 

These bills when passed, she said, “will ensure that the toils of the Ghanaian woman are not in vain”.  

“Women empowerment is still high on the agenda, with government’s social protection programmes targeting women in extremely poor communities,” she said. 

Nana Oye Lithur said “research has shown that the local economies of the rural poor are being turned around by the injection of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) grants into these communities”.  

The minister assured Ghanaian mothers of a better future and again wished them a “Happy Mother’s Day”.

History of Mother’s Day

The modern-day origins of Mother's Day can be attributed to two women – Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis, who were important in establishing the tradition in the United States. 

Around 1870, Julia Ward Howe called for Mother's Day to be celebrated each year. It continued to be held in Boston for about 10 years under her sponsorship, but died out. 

In 1907, Anna Jarvis held a private Mother's Day celebration in memory of her mother, Ann Jarvis, in Grafton, West Virginia. 

In 1908, she played a key role in arranging a church service that attracted 407 children and their mothers. 

A Mother’s Day International Association was founded in 1912 to promote the day in other countries. 

Mother’s Day has grown increasingly popular since then.

In recent times in Ghana, businesses have used the occasion to promote merchandise that children shower on their mothers as gifts on the day.