«Mother Christmas» Arrives With Abundant Gifts

The First Lady yesterday treated pupils and patients at her Foundation to a Christmas feast with plenty of gifts.

First Lady, Chantal Biya, had a blissful Christmas feast yesterday December 23, at her Foundation (Chantal Biya Foundation) with sick children and school pupils who had come to share the joy in celebrating Christmas. It was an exceptional moment of happiness in the midst of pain and ill health. The First Lady’s presence at her foundation was like a star which had come to brighten the faces and minds of sick children with Christmas gifts and friendly hugs of solidarity and hope. At each point, her enticing smile brought hope to the patients and also revealed the slogan of the Foundation which is; smile, hope and solidarity. For over four hours, an untiring Chantal Biya was seen handing gifts from one section of her foundation to the other.

The 2010 Christmas fiesta at the Chantal Biya Foundation was well designed to make it special as always. The First Lady, as usual, came with a huge bag of gifts not only for sick people in her Foundation, but also for over 600 pupils drawn from various primary schools in Yaounde. Her arrival at the Foundation, in elegant pink attire that corresponds with the colours of the Foundation premises added furnishing to the decoration already put in place. Acclaimed with applause from an enthusiastic crowd of invitees and passers-by, Chantal Biya immediately proceeded with the distribution of gifts to school pupils who had lined up at the main entrance of the foundation. The children could not hide their joy in receiving Christmas gifts from the First Lady as they immediately sang a song of best wishes which they learned and kept rehearsing some few minutes before her arrival. Invited guests and wives of the President’s close collaborators accompanied the First Lady in the noble exercise of gifts distribution.

The First Lady later placed Christmas gifts on the sick beds of all children in the foundation, starting with the sick at the Mother and Child Centre of the Foundation to the orphans at the Children First Centre. While moving around the Foundation, heaps of gifts could be seen at strategic corners. The ever cheerful First Lady stopped at each point to distribute the gifts. Even those that came for daily consultation or just passing around the Foundation received a Christmas gift from the First Lady. Over 10 choral and traditional dance groups displayed within the Foundation adding sound to a ceremony that brought hope and joy to sick children and their families.

This year, the foundation received a special Christmas gift from the First Lady; a Mother and Child Paediatrics Unit Center built with the support of Total Foundation. Mrs Chantal Biya used the Christmas feast occasion to inaugurate the unit which will contribute in reinforcing the role already played by the Foundation in caring for mothers and children.

The memory of late Jeanne Irene Biya was also remembered during the event as the First Lady placed a bouquet of flowers on the monument of Jeanne Irene Biya, in front of the Jeanne Irene Pavillion at the foundation. As Mrs Biya bid farewell to those at the Foundation, it was time for those who had lined up outside the Foundation to feel the friendliness of the First Lady. She walked about 100 metres shaking hands with those who had come either to animate the event or by curiosity to see what was happening at the Foundation.

Brenda YUFEH