Ambode’s wife, HOFOWEM empower 103 widows

Some 103 widows drawn from across Lagos, on Thursday, received various empowerment items and cash to boost their trades and businesses with the sole aim of becoming economically self-reliant.

Among the items were deep freezers, refrigerators, generators, industrial gas cookers, professional cameras, photocopiers, grinding machines, whipping machines, bag-sewing and embroidery machines valued at millions of naira.

The beneficiaries were captured in three categories, which include those that required skill acquisition (relatively young widows); those that required equipment support to stabilise their businesses and those that required financial assistance to expand their already existing businesses.

The items were donated by Hope For Women in Nigeria Initiative (HOFOWEM), a non-governmental organisation, founded by Bolanle Ambode, wife of the Lagos State governor, who also used the occasion to emphasise the need for widows across Nigeria to understand their matrimonial rights under the law.

According to Bolanle, the cultural and social problems that women face upon the death of their husbands, including having access to property left behind by the deceased, must be urgently tackled.

“One of the objectives of this programme is to properly educate and enlighten these women on their matrimonial rights under the law. We cannot pretend to be ignorant of the cultural and social problems that women face upon the death of their husbands, including accessing whatever was left behind by their loved ones

“To properly enlighten and advise them on the legal steps to take for redress is the reason we have included the rights education segment in this programme,” she said, adding that the life of widows, especially young ones, was such that should be supported by the society.

The governor’s wife noted that the objective of the programme was to ensure that the widows were able to live happily and depend more on themselves after the death of their husbands.

“After careful analysis, we realised that though all the widows need support, the same type of assistance cannot work for everyone because of age differences and circumstances around them,” she said.

She urged the beneficiaries to make the best use of the benefits of the programme, more importantly, the education on self-reliance, economic empowerment and rights education.

“It is an opportunity to help you rely on yourselves, rather than on external sources,” she said.

Oyefunke Adeleke, chief executive officer of HOFOWEM, speaking at the event, lamented that millions of widows endured extreme poverty, homelessness, among other issues, while their untoward situations often go unnoticed and often not adequately captured by demographic statistics and humanitarian programmes.

She said the organisation had chosen to empower the widows as a way of putting smiles on their faces and give them some sense of belonging.

We believe in putting smiles on the faces of those we come across and this we would continue to do, especially with the less privilege in our society,” Adeleke said.

JOSHUA BASSEY