The Lagos State government has advised widows not to loose hope due to the transition of their spouses but endeavour to summon courage and forge ahead in life in order to be able to cater for their children and other members of their families left behind by their husbands.
In a statement by Mr. Dele Ojo, head, Communications, Advocacy for Women Empowerment Foundation (AdWEF), the Lagos state commissioner for women affairs and Poverty Alleviation gave the advice in Ikeja at an event to commemorate the 2017 international widows day on Friday June 23, 2017, organized by Advocacy for Windows Empowerment Foundation (AdWEF), a non-governmental organization.
According to the commissioner, represented by Ms Raji Funmilayo , widows are an integral part of the society, irrespective of the loss of their husbands, pointing out that the Lagos state government has plans for them, adding that they should organize themselves under one umbrella in order to make it easier for government’s intervention in their plight.
Welcoming the about 500 widows that attended the event, Mr. Willie Workman-Oga, Executive Director of AdWEF, highlighted the NGO’s objectives, noting that the organization is five years old, stating that within the last five years of its existence, AdWEF has played important roles in the lives of its member widows through various empowerment programmes with support from Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Ajinomoto, Icoh, and Indulge Group.
According to him, “At the beginning we started with only five widows at our then little office on ACME road but today we have grown to over 3,000 members spread across the country. We have conducted empowerment programmes to majority of our members with working tools such as sewing machines, grinding machines, fertilizers etc. were distributed”,
He explained the NGO have widow farmers in Benue, Kaduna and Jos Plateau states and they are doing fine, pointing out that the outfit also conducted free dental test by Icoh and breast cancer tests conducted by Cebeekly Cancer Care and Plan B Agencies for its members, while scholarships have been secured to children of some members courtesy of ADWEF, Tar Zor Lee Foundation Dublin and other spirited individuals.
He confessed that the current economic recession is hindering our sponsorship drive as most organizations are cutting cost drastically to stay in business, but we hope things will improve before the end of this year so that we can continue our empowerment programmes”.
Meanwhile, Barrister Chigozie Ezeonyejiaku representative of FIDA Chairperson in Lagos at the event enlightened the widows on their rights under Nigerias constitution and encouraged them to always seek legal redress whenever their rights are trampled upon.
Among the roles of AdWEF are:
To act as advocates to identified widows to join hands with them to insist on their rights through legal means.
To educate widows on their basic human rights and how to insist on it.
To cooperate with existing NGOs to educate men on the need to write their wills early in life and also to make their wives their next of kin in all insurance, employment and Banking document in order to ease the accessibility of funds for use of their family in instances of their deaths.
To source for funds through sponsorships, fundraising, and donations for the training of 200 widows annually to start with, for the empowerment of trained widows to establish their own businesses.
To discuss with financial institutions and collaborate with the widows themselves on how to benefit from the many SME and Cooperatives products available in most financial institutions that would make available to trained widows, adequate funding for their businesses.
To monitor the training and progress of the widows under our programmes
To search for and introduce widows to mentors from difference walks of life.
