FIFA Council Member and CAF Executive Committee Member, Madam Isha Johansen, celebrates another glorious birthday in a magnanimous and grand style. The power woman is among the few and luckiest birthday celebrants on Christmas Day.
Every year, Madam Johansen shares this incredible moment with newborn babies at her hospital of birth, where she normally makes donations to babies born on Christmas Day (December 25). In this year’s celebration, the global football enthusiast and administrator extends her birthday celebration to hospitals, mosques, and orphanages in Freetown and Portloko Cities.
In the morning hours today, donations of hampers were made to babies born today (December 25th) at the Cottage Hospital in Freetown and the Government Hospital in Portloko Town. The hampers contain assorted baby items, plus a cash of Le250. It’s a normal practice for Madam Johansen to always celebrate her birthday with newborn babies at the Cottage Hospital on Christmas Day, her hospital of birth. She extends her kind gesture to include the Government Hospital in Portloko in this year’s celebration.
Madam Johansen also made a donation of bales of assorted clothing to the ‘Network For Children’s In Need‘ Orphanage at Allen Town in Freetown and at the EducAid Centre Portloko City. These orphanages were also served with cooked Christmas meals and drinks.
A special birthday party was held for the celebrant, Madam Isha Johansen, at the Fourah Bay Committee, in absentia. Dozens of kids came out to celebrate the iconic football administrator. She also made a cash donation to 3 mosques in Freetown, where prayers were offered for her.
About Isha Johansen —
Isha Tejan-Cole Johansen was born into the Tejan-Cole family in Freetown. Isha grew up as a football fanatic, all thanks to her father, Mohamed Tejan-Cole, a banker and co-founder of East End Lions Football Club in Freetown.
Isha was schooled at a convent school in Freeport and at a boarding school in Yeovil, England. She grew passion in media activities, becoming the first female publisher from Sierra Leone, producing the Rapture Magazine, and served as an editor for the Ovation Magazine.
Isha went on to establish the ‘Pink Charity Fund‘ foundation to combat breast cancer in 2006. She also founded the Women Excellence Awards.
Due to her humanitarian and footballing background, Isha Johansen founded the Johansen Football Club (FC Johansen) in 2004, thereby creating a platform and opportunities for kids displaced during the Sierra Leone civil war.
In August 2013, Isha was elected as the President of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), the first female FA President from Sierra Leone, and the second in Africa. She served in that capacity until 2021.
In 2017, Isha became a CAF Executive Committee Member, a position she holds to date.
In March 2021, she was unanimously elected as a FIFA Council Member and as a FIFA Board Member a year later.
In all her capacities, Madam Isha Johansen has excelled and continues to excel in executing her duties. She is a revered global personality who has changed the narratives of male domineering in the sports of football administration.
She leads change initiatives, especially using the power of football. She has nurtured this initiative to reform female inmates in Correctional Centres in her home country. Her niche in using football and fashion to influence change has caught the attention of FIFA and CAF and the London Fashion Week.
By Ibrahim Sorious Samura
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