IWS Advocates Better Opportunities for Widows

Mary Nnah

The  International Women Society (IWS) has advocated better opportunities for widows while also calling on Nigerians to raise more awareness about widows’ issues.

The IWS’s President, Mrs Izabella Abia-Okon appealed recently during the group’s International Widows Day (IWD) celebration with the theme, “DigitAll Widows”.   

International Widows Day, celebrated every  June 23, is a special day established by the United Nations (UN) dedicated to addressing the poverty and injustice faced by millions of widows and their dependents.

According to Abia-Okonr, the latest statistics by the UN show that 258 million widows and 585 million children need support globally.

The president who said that widows face many challenges, noted that  IWD was significant because it is a day to acknowledge the struggles of widowed women and demand better facilities for them.

She explained that Widows Day empowers all widows by demanding better facilities and opportunities for them as well as acknowledging the struggles of widowed women.

“It also addresses the regressive mentality of people regarding women and their place in society while advocating the upliftment of women by making them self-sufficient,” she said.

Abia-Okon said that as part of events marking the Day, widows would be trained on how to maximise opportunities with innovation and technology, adding that through the training many of the widows will understand the difference between working smart and working hard.

“Technology makes it easier to connect to the world and you can begin to produce marketable goods worldwide,” she said.

In her remarks, Mrs Nkoli Obi-Ogbolu, a member of IWS, said the association had trained widows on how to use their phones to empower their businesses and also gave palliatives to almost 300 widows. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Also, the Chairperson, Widows Trust Fund of IWS, Mrs Adebanke Adeola, who was represented by Mrs Gbemi Shasore, a Trustee of IWS, said that the extensive opportunities digitalisation would bring to women’s businesses would further break gender barriers and accelerate equality.

“In March this year when the UN celebrated International Women’s Day, they decided to flag the theme ‘ DigitALL Women’ for the extensive opportunities digitalisation brings to women’s businesses as a way of further breaking gender barriers and accelerating equality’, noted.

“It called for all involved to set the stage for innovation and technology as the launch pad for the future of transformative change and sustainability”, she added.

She said that using technology to enhance businesses and being compliant with the digital age is trending as it is the new method of transacting maximally and empowering yourself optimally.

 IWS Widows Trust Fund was founded in 1998 by the then President,  Mrs Ijeoma Asala of blessed memory.  IWS empowered Widows twice a year in January with Our Widows New Year Feast( WINYEF) and International Widows Day, June 23.

This year they had widows trained on how to use their phones to empower their businesses while palliatives were given to almost 300 widows while a few were endowed with business support infrastructure.

The training was conducted by Messrs Muyiwa Gam-Ikon and Vitus Ogbodo,  partners in IT facilitation for students at the IWS Skills Centre. To date, IWS has supported over 2000 widows in their businesses.