by Bridget Ikyado
The Nikki Udezue Foundation has empowered 25 widows in Jiwa community in Abuja under it’s programme ‘Widows Smile Initiative’.
The President and Founder of the Foundation, Mrs Nkiruka Udezue in an interview with pressmen at the venue of the empowerment in Jiwa, said widows, orphans and the downtrodden in the society. deserved special attention.
According to her, the foundation’s vision is primarily to empower the underprivileged and marginalized, especially widows and orphans.
“The foundation is empowering the widows in Jiwa with N750,000 and food items which costs almost N500,000.
“We do hope to have follow up, because for every widow we impact we must come back here to see what they have done and how we can further assist them.
“Empowering the widows, the orphans, women, the girl child, is really my focus. The impact is to be able to give them a voice, give them encouragement.”
Udezue added that the gesture was to put smiles on their faces and make them self reliant.
“This programme goes to tell you that if these women are empowered, even after the loss of their husbands, it will give them enough courage to move on and then help their families.
“To sustain the children left behind because that’s the important part, if the woman’s husband is dead and the woman has nothing doing, the three four children will suffer.
“We can’t all just be spending money and forget that we have an environment where we are supposed to directly be impacting people,” she said.
The Foundation President appealed to the beneficiaries to make judious use of the empowerment package.
“I urge you the beneficiaries to use the money and food judiciously because when I come back here in the next six months, I want to see you live better lives,” Udezue said.
She explained that programme was deliberately scheduled for the January after the New Year celebration has ended, so that beneficiaries would not use the money for the celebration.
Udezue while calling on other well meaning individuals to use their wealth to touch more vulnerable Nigerians, urged the beneficiaries to utilize the cash and food items wisely.
On his part, the Madaki of Jiwa, Mr Tanko Nuhu, thanked the foundation for the gesture and called on government to fund such foundations who will in turn reach people in the suburbs since the government cannot be everywhere.
Nuhu who represented the District Head of Jiwa, called for more support to widows and other vulnerable individuals and advised the beneficiaries to invest what they got in their businesses.
“My advise to the beneficiaries is they should invest rather than lavishly spend, we have heard attestations form other communities, so those empowered here should be wise to be self reliant,” he added.
He prayed God to bless the foundation and their donors.
Some of the widows recounted how difficult life has been without their breadwinners and appreciated the Foundation for the support.
One of the beneficiaries, Roseline Akhikpemelo, said the donation was timely and would be useful to their struggle to cater for their families.
“When you lose your husband, life becomes very difficult for the woman, with this empowerment, I believe my life will be changed, my children will go back to school and I will start up a business, I thank the foundation,” she added.
Another beneficiary, Otitoju Blessing, expressed her happiness, saying the empowerment was an opportunity for her to enjoy life life again.
“I am glad and happy for this opportunity, God will bless you all,” she added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Foundation presented one of the widows, Rosemary Oraza with a house, cash for starting up a business and food items.
Oraza was leaving in an uncompleted building because she could not afford a rented apartment.
Items donated to the widows include bags of rice, cartons of Noodles, cartons of vegetable oil, yam, condiments and N30,000 each to start a business.
The foundation is a youth and woman-led nonprofit organization focused on positively impacting the lives of people in communities, especially marginalized groups, the vulnerable, and the poor, through socio-economic development interventions.
The foundation has employed inclusive and community-driven approaches to solve social ills and contribute to the lives of people in their sphere of limitation by increasing their access to socio-economic, health, security, and development opportunities
The NGO is aimed at helping vulnerable people alleviate poverty through innovative projects and the efforts of dedicated team,while it welcomes support from organizations and voluntary donors.”