Widows Need Skills Acquisition, Financial Support to Face Challenges, Says SIL Foundation

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Stanley Inye Lawson (SIL) Foundation has said that one of the best ways to reduce the vulnerability of widows is to empower them with relevant skills that can help sustain their families.

It also said that assisting the widows with financial grants to support business start-ups will go a long way to restoring hope and stability in their homes.

Speaking at an event to mark this year’s International Widows Day, the Chief Executive Officer of SiL Foundation, Mrs. Ubile Charity Lawson, said most women are vulnerable when they lose their husbands and needed encouragement to forge ahead.

Lawson further said most of what these widows needed are not mere empathy but strong support in terms of refocusing themselves to become breadwinners to be able to train their children.

Lawson hailed the recent initiative by the federal government to offer free medical services to vulnerable Nigerians including indigent widows.

Speaking on the major challenges facing Nigerian widows, she said that “a lot of the women face serious financial problem, and how to cope with the training of their children at school.

For instance, she said a lot of widows will like to do business on their own in order to train their children but they lack the funds.

Lawson said: “SiL pays school fees of quite a number these children as well the hospital bills of the sick ones.  For those who want to start businesses of their own, we encourage them by giving them grants and helping them to acquire skills”.

In terms of budget for grants and other assistance, she said that SiL Foundation has over the years expended over N10 million annually.

“Today we gathered widows in commemoration of this year’s International Widows Day. Our Foundation uses the event as an opportunity to reach out to widows that registered with us, organizing empowerment training and give them food items.

“It’s a day that we try to put smiles on the faces of widows. The theme of this year’s programme is – “Thriving as Widows” – she said.

She said the foundation is reaching out to the windows through the Destiny Widows Association and Gwagwalada Widows Association.

Highlight of yesterday’s programme was the capacity building training which held simultaneously for the widow’s associations in Abuja and Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

SiL Foundation also used the opportunity to distribute food palliatives to the windows.

One of the Guest Speakers at the event, Mrs. Uluoma Chidinma Afonja, said that a lot of work is needed to motivate these women and try and give them hope and to let them know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

She noted the ability to acquire some skills is very important to the survival of widows and their immediate family.

“You know, when a woman becomes a widow, the number one thing that makes her really, really vulnerable is not the emotional aspect, which is there because she’s lost a lot.

“People will come to take advantage of her in different ways. So that’s why it’s important that a widow has skills. A widow has something she’s able to do, to be able to take care of her family and have that financial independence, to be able to make her own choice and know that she has to rely on God for everything that she has to do.,” she said.

Another resource person, Dr. Chichi Emodi, said her lecture was focusing of various tips meant to encourage and ginger the women to push forward and fill the gap left by their deceased husbands.

She said that SiL, as a foundation, is trying to reach out to the widows.

So, my own role is to encourage them and say to them that the fact that you’re a widow does not mean a death sentence.

“It’s not a death sentence anywhere you have the widows. You have the fatherless. But there is hope, because there is a father of all fathers, and there is a husband of the widow. There is a God who is there as their defender,” she said.