By Ruth Ogbonnaya
Widows from different communities gathered on Thursday at the popular Halleluyah Auditorium along Association Avenue, Ikotun, Lagos state for the International Widows Day celebration.
The historic moment also marked the official launch of the Next Initiative for Gender Action Foundation, NIGAF.
With the theme, “Widows for Peace Through Democracy”, the launch/widows rendezvous attracted dignitaries from different walks of life, some of who motivated the widows through sharing their success stories and conscientizing them for greatness against all odds.
The high point of the event was when the the Executive Director of NIGAF, Lion Deaconess Bukola Soaga Bada described widows as heroes, after sharing accounts of her travails and triumph as a widow.
Some other widows were also allowed to contribute their various experiences.
As a major empowerment stride, the invited lecturer delivered a speech which centred on simple profitable business opportunities available in neighborhoods never exploited, to the amazement and delight of the widows who later got food palliatives.
Aside the food palliatives, widows were empowered with a Non Capital Intensive business idea of recycling pet bottles, their covers and wrappings which can help them earn good money.
According to Deaconess Bukola Bada, the NIGAF as the name implies will enhance existing gender struggles and create a wider horizons for women emancipation.
She also stated that NIGAF in collaboration with other stakeholders will push for a Widows Commission that will fully cater for widows, as a departure from the usual inputs from the Ministry of Women Affairs, pointing that NIGAF’S quest for shelter for widows will be high as that has been a major albatross in communities.
Bada however called on widows everywhere to see their status as a springboard to greatness, rather than sinking low.
She also tasked them to be morally upright and train their children well.
Lion Deaconess Bukola Soaga Bada is the incumbent president, Maryland Royal Lions Club.
