What We Do
From mere Widows to Survivor... to Active Citizen
How We Work: Widows Concerns Organization believes Widows are part of the not just mothers who need help, But they are a bridge in the social network and safety-nets, they are in a much stronger position to advocate for their rights.
This is why our Aims and Objectives are as:
- To fight inhuman treatment against widows in the name of tradition.
- To alleviate the widow’s poor standard of living.
- To assist the widows cope with task of raising their children.
- To assist widows recover properties wrongfully taken away from her.
- To fight for the widow’s right.
- To make the widows more productive in the society.
Part of our work is to draw the attention of the general public to the plight of widows in the face of obnoxious, inhuman practices that deny them their rights, and also to stimulate government and society’s general psyche to a legislative approval and consequent establishment of a SOCIAL WELFARE PLATFORM for widows in Nigeria
Why Widows?
Around the world, Widows face some of the greatest obstacles yet also represent tremendous opportunity for lasting social and economic development. In Africa, Widows face the following challenges:
- They bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s poverty
- Their ability to have a decent life is limited (they perform 66 percent of the world’s work and produce 50 percent of the food but they only earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property).
Some widows are subjected to many inhuman treatments like:
- Being Forced to drink the water used in washing to husband's corpse just to prove her innocence, (Apart from water being dirty, water may contain harmful chemicals used to preserve dead bodies before burial)
- A widow could be forced to sleep, eat and generally live for many months in same room where her husband is buried to prove their innocence.
- Widows are demanded to cook and display food outside in the night for their dead husbands. - If the food disappears by morning then she is free of the husband’s death. If the food still remains uneaten by the next morning then it is concluded she has a hand in the husband’s death.
- The widow could be forced to deliver all her husband’s properties to the husband’s family or taken by the husband’s relations notwithstanding if the widow has children from the late husband or not.
- A Widow suspected of the husband’s death is sometimes called to a village gathering and disgraced publicly without proof.
- They are sometime rejected in social gathering or from contacts and relationships other women are advised not to communicate with them.
- Coupled with fact they have no help these are just a few of many inhuman treatments widows suffer in the name of traditions or culture in Africa. There are still plenty of these evil treatments to unfold.
An average Widow faces the following challenges:
- She has limited access to electricity and water
- She is not educated to work and fend for herself
- She is not engaged in productive work
- She is not able to pay for medical care
- She is not able to change customs and traditions that are not fair to her
- She cannot pay tuition for her children
Why Widows Concerns Organization?
As a result of the problems stated above, Widows Concerns Organization lose everything that ever mattered to them, including their sense of self. Their voices are silenced. And even if they were to speak, there is no safe place where they can voice their pain.
Participation in our one-year program launches Widows on a journey from victim to survivor to active citizen. We identify services to Support us graduates of the program as they continue to strive for greater social, economic and political participation in their communities.
As each widow engages in a multi-phase process of recovery and rehabilitation, she opens a window of opportunity presented by the end of conflict to help improve the rights, freedoms and status of Widows in her country. As Widows who go through our program assume leadership positions in their villages, actively participate in the reconstruction of their communities, build civil society, start businesses, train other Widows and serve as role models, they become active citizens who can help to establish lasting peace and stability.
Widows begin in our Sponsorship Program where direct financial aid from a sponsor helps them deal with the immediate effects of war and conflict such as lack of food, water, medicine and other necessities. Exchanging letters with sponsors provides Widows with an emotional lifeline and a chance to tell their stories —maybe for the first time. As their situations begin to stabilize, Widows in our program begin building a foundation for their lives as survivors.
While continuing to receive sponsorship Support , Widows embark on the next leg of the journey and participate in the Widows’s Life Skills that provides them with rights awareness, leadership education and vocational and technical skills training. Widows build upon existing skills and learn new ones in order to regain their strength, stability and stature on the path to becoming active citizens.
Key Outcomes for Our Programs:
- Widows’s access to quality, affordable and accessible healthcare reduces preventable deaths.
- When Widows are informed and trained in disease prevention (they gain the knowledge and confidence to reject harmful cultural practices and combat water-born illnesses).
- For sustainable peace to take hold, Widows must take an equal role in shaping it.
- Studies show that Widows exercise greater decision-making power within their families when they are educated.
- Greater economic and educational opportunity for a widow means her children are more.
- Widows reinvest a much higher portion in their families and communities.
- Widows who participate in our program learn the importance of working together.
- By working in groups, Widows benefit from the social Support us system and the creation of social networks.
- Exchanging letters with sponsors provides Widows with an extended social network of Widows to share their stories with.
Widows are well: physical and mental health
Widows contribute to family and community decisions:
Widows sustain an income: Widows access their economic rights
Widows have networks and safety nets: participatory Support us model
Program Overarching Goal:
Widows-led community change leading to peaceful and stable communities
- Empowered Widows understand their value to society and are able to demand their right to own property, access quality healthcare, live in a peaceful environment and contribute their perspectives to the peace table.
- Providing economic resources to Widows increases the likelihood of the next generation being healthy and educated.
- By providing resources to Widows, we are helping Widows transition into a macroeconomic level and achieve ownership of their own labor, inputs and profits.
Meanwhile, we’re constantly working to provide technical assnigeriance to our chapters, to Support us and empower our sponsors and Widows around Africa, and to amplify Widows’s voices through research, publications.
History:
Widows Concerns Organisation began its operations through a documentary project designed by VISION AFRICA ENTERTAINMENT for a TV programme to showcase the ills that most African traditions have done to the widows in Africa. The programme was meant to shed light on their suffering and the need for a change in attitude to these important people in our society. The full realisation of the plights of these women and their children prompted the need to start an organisation that will not only assist in their welfare but to harness their potential as a catalyst for development and social change. Widows Concerns Org. started with; spreading the idea of the widows coming together in a forum to discuss their problems and ways to get help. How to learn and develope resoucesful skills to attract income. making more from what they already have. Managing their children and family against all odds and without their husband. Interacting with the widows, showing care, giving hope and financial assnigeriance as much as we can to solve impending problems.
