A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Windows Multipurpose Development Association (WIMDA), has trained and supported 25 widows with sewing machines and other working tools in Kaduna.
The Widows were also supported with refrigerators, knitting machines, dryers, and ovens, among other equipment to kick start the trades they learned, respectively.
The Widows were taught knitting, tailoring, cooking, cosmetics, baskets, beadwork, tie and die, and shoemaking, among others.
At the graduation ceremony of the widows, on Thursday in Kaduna, the founder of WIMDA, Dame Patricia Danmaida, said the reason for training and empowering the widows was the lack of job opportunities.
She added that it was also due to the poor economy, which poses hardships to widows, who sometimes have nothing or little to fend for their children.
“Widows go through a lot of inhuman acts in our contemporary societies, if they are lucky sometimes, they are asked to remain with the late husband’s family, if not, they are sent packing,”.
Danmaida noted that the training was thus to empower the widows towards self-reliance in income-generating activities to enable them to fend for themselves and their children to meet the challenges posed by the dwindling economy.
She urged them to make judicious use of the equipment given to them to achieve the set objectives of the NGO.
Also, the representative of a donor, Mainstream Foundation, the corporate social responsibility outfit of Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited, the operators of Kainji and Jebba Hydro Power Plants, Mr. Omeiza Okumoh, said the windows are a great part of society that needs assistance to move on with life.
He noted that the Mainstream Foundation works to improve the quality of lives of communities around the Kainji and Jebba lakes and the Niger basin, but due to the kind of beneficiaries involved (Windows), they deemed it fit to extend their humanitarian gesture for the first time to Kaduna.
“We have done almost 500 projects in our catchment areas and we are doing more, women empowerment is one of our key areas and we are glad to be in Kaduna to partner and make donations,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the widows, Rodah Duniya, thanked WIMDA for the humanitarian gesture and urged other well-meaning Nigerians and bodies to emulate the association, especially in assisting widows and other less privileged members of society.
