IWD: FCT women receive training, funds

More than 400 widows drawn from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasarawa and Niger states have received free skills training and cash gifts from concerned non-governmental organisations over the weekend to mark this year’s International Widows Day.


The event, which was organised by Helpline Foundation for the Needy, provided start-up capital for the women to mark the widows’ day and employment opportunities through training on skills such as sewing, hair-dressing and bead making among others to cushion the effects of the hardship facing the women and their children.


Founder of the organisation, Dr. Jummai Ahmadu said the NGOs celebrate with the widows every year on the day set aside for them by the United Nations to give them hope and encouragement, saying such gestures would help dispel the erroneous notion that widowhood is the end of the road for women.

Speaking to Blueprint at the weekend, National President of Widows Need Relief Advocates, Mrs. Nkechi Ohiri, expressed dissatisfaction with the neglect of widows by the federal and state governments.
Mrs. Nkechi, a widow, expressed concern over the molestation suffered by widows in the hands of relatives of their late husbands and alleged manipulation of widows by officials of government at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.

The widow claimed that many officials in the ministry secretly register non-governmental groups and divert any government amenities or funds allocated for widows to such private outfits while the real widows are left to suffer.

Continuing, Nkechi disclosed that there are more than 20, 000 widows in Nigeria who are suffering daily for marginalisation and she has personally intervened in many states such as Imo, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa, where the brothers of widows’ molested the women after accusing them of killing their husbands.
She commended the National Human Rights Commission, the Federation of Women Lawyers among others for the assistance the widows have been receiving from them.

“What I saw in Imo state is terrible. The way they maltreat widows has no comparison with any other place on earth. I visited there recently to resolve a case where the relations of a widow’s late husband refused to give her land to bury her husband and he was left in the mortuary for four years.

“We were able to resolve the matter by paying the mortuary fees and securing land from the government to bury the man. Widows should know that we can fight for our rights ourselves by uniting because only the widow will know what another widow is passing through,” she concluded.