International Widows Day: Plateau Organises Empowerment Program for 2,000 Widows

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Friday, June 23rd, 2017

Photo caption: Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Plateau government is organising an empowerment program for 2,000 widows as part of activities to mark this year’s International Widows’ Day, the women affairs commissioner Rufina Gurummen has said.

Gurummen, at a press briefing to mark the day on Friday in Jos, said that the program was being sponsored by Mrs. Regina Lalong, wife of the Governor.

“The focus is to reduce the hardship faced by widows; they are all over the place, but we have selected at least three women from every electoral ward,” she said.

The commissioner said that the event was particularly significant in Plateau because it was emerging from a protracted violence that claimed the lives of many citizens and threw up a throng of widows.

“Most of the casualties in the attacks are usually men, leaving children and women behind. Society must find a way of assisting these victims,” she said.

In her remarks, Mrs. Felicia Yakzun, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Women affairs, said that the day was set aside to celebrate widows and show them love and kindness.

She expressed concern over the maltreatment meted to widows by their in-laws, and called for a law to protect them from such “obsolete cultures”.

Yakzun urged privileged members of the society to assist widows, stressing that some of them in the rural areas were “going through very tough times”.

The International Widows Day is celebrated annually on June 23, to draw global attention to the misery of widows.

The theme for this year’s celebration is ‘ Never Alone’.