RoSF empowers widows, orphans for better society

All roads on June 23 led to ROSGMI Hall, Surulere, Lagos, where widows numbering over a thousand and from different parts of Lagos and its environs converged to celebrate the International Widows’ Day (IWD).

Organised by Rose of Sharon Foundation (RoSF), the day is declared by the United Nations (UN), to address the poverty and various injustices widows and their dependents face in countries across the globe.

The RoSF organised event, which is now in its 3rd edition saw the women in different age brackets receive free Medicare and drugs to address different illnesses.

Welcoming guests, Mrs. Temitope Olusola, representing the founder, Chief Folorunsho Alakija, called governments at all levels and well meaning people across the world to help alleviate the plights of widows and their dependents by empowering them to fend for themselves and to contribute to the development of their communities.

RoSF, as a not-for-profit organisation, has partnered different schools, including Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), to train widows in diverse skills, as a way of equipping them to fend for themselves, their children and dependants. Aside this, the foundation has awarded scholarship to 1,366 of the women, including some of their children and orphans. Out of this number, seven of the widows got scholarship to go for higher degrees of which four have graduated.

Apart from the trainings and scholarship, RoSF gives soft loans for start-ups and also to those of them already in business, to make their businesses stronger.

Commending the foundation for catering for widows, the wife of Lagos State governor, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode, while speaking on the theme of the year: “Widows’ Economic Empowerment And Political Participation: A Call To Action,” said, “ economic empowerment helps widows to stabilise amid the storm of losing their husbands, to gain their voices in the crowd, to swim against the tide and to take firm decisions when the odds are clearly against them.

“Equipping widows with skills that would empower and generate money would enable them take care of their pressing needs that could have expose them to needless pity, ridicule or temptations,” she noted.

Apart from the Medicare, the women in a health talk were enlightened on how to handle depression and other health challenges.

Adaora Ijezie, who represented the first lady of Imo State, Mrs. Nneoma Okorocha, was among special guests that graced the occasion.