Maduka Nweke
Women for Christ Kingdom Network (WCKN), during this year’s Mother’s Day celebration, put smiles on the faces of widows with various gifts. The group in conjunction with Building Bridge Foundation (BBF) said it was to appreciate widows, cheer them up.
The convener of the event and founder, WCKN, Apostle Blessing Norbert, told Daily Sun that she was moved to establish the ministry because as a widow, she understands what women past through when they lose their husbands. She lost her husband 11 years ago and the bitter experiences gave her the passion to support widows and orphans:
“We use this opportunity to confer awards on reputable personalities, to entertain widows and give them gifts in order to create a sense of belonging among them. We try as much as we can to encourage widows, to put a smile on their faces and let them know that they can become who God wants them to be irrespective of whatever that has happened in their lives.
“As the BBF is sponsoring the event today, by God’s grace, another none governmental organisation may come up tomorrow and decides to collaborate with us. We are open to business so far as it will put smiles on the widows, orphans and the less privileged in the society, we shall continue.”
Fabrics, rice, soap and detergent, processed foods and other items were among the distributed items. BBF said the “aim is to help the widows rediscover themselves, to know that the girl child could be trained to be useful to the society. BBF believes that parents, even if widows should not only prepare their female children just for marriage. They could be anything good for the society.”
Mrs Maimuna Chionuma, BBF president, said: “My advice to the government is that they should try and build the capacity of women and encourage them to become people to reckon with in the society. If you do not build the capacity of women, the society is down. Build women and children and the nation will have a great future. As a lawyer I have handled several cases of in-laws dispossessing widows of all belongings after the demise of their husbands. This is not decent and should not be encouraged at this age of civilisation.”
On the number of widows penciled for the gifts, she said: “We made provision for 150 widows but as you can see, the number has reached 200 and still counting. We just said we want to celebrate Mothers’ Day with widows and the event turned out to be ‘each one tell one’ announcement. We are happy that we are privileged to splash smiles on the faces of the widows.”
Evangelist Chioma Adeoye of Gilead’s House of Answered Prayers lamented the sharp practices being meted to widows in Nigeria: “Young windows should remarry. The greater number of people that call themselves widows in Nigeria today are not widows. Bible recognises people from 60 years of age to be widows. If you are not up to that age, then you should go and remarry. Government should support widows in areas of housing and empowerment.”
One of the widows, Mrs Chinwendu Mercy Nwosu, said: “I am very happy that the organisers want to make widows happy. But I am not happy that I became a widow at the age of 48 years.”