The founder of Jedidiah Divine Home of Love (JEDLOF), a non-governmental organisation, Dr (Mrs) Ebele Okoye has stressed the need for both government, organisations, and well-meaning individuals to rise to the challenge of widows in society.
Speaking to journalists after distributing various items, including food, to over 150 widows in Enugu State, Dr Okoye called for the involvement of all levels of government to design programmes for widows by setting aside a grant that will enable them to establish themselves.
According to her, the government at all levels should be able to employ graduate widows to enable them to feed and train their families.
She also called for the setting up of small-scale businesses for the non-educated widows where they could learn handwork.
Her words: “If they do that, you will see that many of them will not be as bad as they are by sitting and waiting for where the next meal will come from or their children looking for how to go to school without school fees.
“The government should take care of their kids by establishing a kind of fund that will be for the care of these children from primary to secondary school.
“A serious government all over the world provides serious things that they do for widows, but in Nigeria, the government should take it as a responsibility.”
Okoye explained that both widows and their children are agonising and in pain as a result of the poverty associated with them.
On the activities of JEDLOF, Dr Okoye explained that over 150 widows were hosted in Enugu State as part of activities to mark the end of the 2023 programme.
She revealed that a lot of activities have been lined up for 2024, describing them as massive but depending on the availability of funds.
She also added that JEDLOF planned the construction of boreholes for communities, trained brilliant widows’ children in schools, and identified young widows to empower them business-wise.