First Lady of Cameroon – Chantal Biya

Chantal Biya was born in Dimako, East Province, to French expatriate Georges Vigouroux and Miss Doumé pageant winner Rosette Ndongo Mengolo. Chantal Biya spent her adolescence in Yaoundé. She married President Paul Biya on 23 April 1994, after his first wife, Jeanne-Irène Biya, died in 1992. Chantal Biya has established several charitable organisations. Among them are African Synergy, which pursues various HIV/AIDS initiatives, and the Chantal Biya Foundation (French Fondation Chantal Biya). She hosted the original First Ladies Summit in Yaoundé during the 1996 Organisation of African Unity summit. Her Jeunesse Active pour Chantal Biya is an organ of her husband’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.