By Adeola Ogunlade
“I am grateful to this kind gesture done me and my children to celebrate this year’s Christmas season. I and my children have been abandoned by my husband family for years and celebrating precious moment as Christmas with little or nothing has been of great concern. This gesture has made our Christmas a memorable one for us”.
A widow, Mrs. Abosede Omodenriwa said this in an interview with The Nation recently as The Smile Initiative through Widow’s Might reached out to 30 widows in Abaraje, Lagos with gifts of food items, clothing, money and plaiting of their hair free as support for the Christmas celebration.
The event also featured enlightenment sessions and special prayers for the widows and their families.
Omodenriwa, a retired civil servant, whose husband died six years ago, said that since her husband demise, things have not been easy for her and the children. We are just managing; I am impressed at this show of support to us as its mean a lot to my family at this time.
Speaking at the event, the Founder of The Smile Initiative, Ameachi Ifeoma, said that the gesture was intended to put smiles on the faces of the widows.
She said that the initiatives were put together to help lighten the burdens and pressures Widows face around this Yuletide season.
“Helping widows is very important because been a widow is the hardest thing that can happen to a woman especially when she has children and there are no support systems. Widowhood in most cases leads to mental and emotional stressed that is why it is important to step in a help them in any way possible” she said.
Ifeoma , who restated the commitment of the organisation which is to enliven the plight of the poor and vulnerable people in our society, said that the initiative is also providing educational scholarships to the children of the widows and grants to 30 widows for them to expand their businesses.
In her speech, the Founder of CBA Foundation, Mrs. Chinwe Bode-Akinwande challenged the widows to be resourceful and skillful in whatever they do as widowhood is just an happening and not a dead sentence, they have their lives to live.
Bode-Akinwande, lamented the growing rate of widows who are going down with hypertension and stroke, said “the world is not coming to an end because you are a widow, you must choose to be happy and take care of yourself and your health because of your children”.
She implored the widows to learn to save and multiply what you are doing. Don’t be afraid of tomorrow, deal with the challenges of today, adding that they should cultivate the habit of prayer as God is the husband of the widows and he hears when they call on him.
On her part, the Founder, The Widow’s Might, Regina Chris-Ogbodo, who was elated at the intervention provided by The Smile Initiative, said that the intervention has helped to enliven the widows and given them so much hope at this yuletide season.