By Stanley Onyekwere
As the global community marks the International Widow’s Day (IWD), an Abuja based Non Governmental Organisation, Helpline Foundation for the Needy, has identified skill acquisition and financial empowerment, as key in tackling the invisibility of widows in the country.
To this end, the Foundation has embarked on skill acquisition training for over 400 widows drawn from the six Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and neighbouring states of Nasarawa and Niger.
However, the NGO also frowned at non focused policies of government at all levels to address the multifaceted problems facing widows across the globe, stressing that such an ignoring attitude means that issues of widowhood would remain unaddressed.
According to the President and Founder of Helpline Foundation, Dr. Jumai Ahmadu, who spoke at the 2021 IWD organised by the Foundation, in collaboration with Nigeria Association of Women Journalists and Make A Difference for the Needy Foundation, however, affirmed that it is poised in making widows in the nation’s capital to be more productive in the society.
Ahmadu, while commenting on this year’s theme: “Invisible Women, Invisible Problems”, noted that the theme urges all and sundry to identify widows and make their problems visible to society.
According to her, “Among various ethnic groups, the widows are even deprived of their privileges. This theme of Widows’ Day 2021 therefore, urges us to identify those women and make their problems visible to society. Specifically, we are here today in ensuring that widows are not only empowered, but are made visible to policy makers.
“Helpline Foundation and other critical stakeholders have come to the sudden realization that policies focus upon common citizens, labourers, jobless youth, and other suffering segments of the society but nothing is specifically discussed about widows in policy-making meetings. Therefore, we will continue to highlight the issues of this ignored group to make our society more sustainable”.
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