By Alex Enebeli

The Africa Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) Nigeria, has empowered widows in Enugu, decrying discrimination, stigmatisation and harmful traditional practices against them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was titled 2025 Widows’ Outreach with the theme, “Restoring Dignity, Rekindling Hope”

It was organised by AWLA, Nigeria in partnership with Healing Hearts Window’s Support Foundation (HHWSF), an international non-governmental charity organisation, on Tuesday in Enugu.

Speaking at the event, the President of AWLA, Nigeria, Mrs Caroline Ibharuneafe, said the essence of the outreach was to empower widows and to encourage them, restore their hope and dignity.

She stated that in many parts of Igboland, widows and their girl children found themselves pushed to the periphery – denied property, voice and belongings.

According to her, what begins as mourning becomes a struggle for their survival and recognition.

“So the theme of this programme encapsulates the urgent moral, legal and societal imperative to confront the traditions and institutions that continue to oppress these women.

“It calls for the reclamation of the widow’s place in her matrimonial home and the affirmation of the girl child as a rightful heir -not an outsider”.

The president listed some of the injustice meted against widows to include eviction from their homes by their in-laws, disinheritance, social exclusion and forcing of widows to undergo rituals to prove their innocence in husbands’ death.

She disclosed that section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) guarantees the right to dignity of the human person, yet, many widows were stripped of their property, voice and even bodily autonomy.

Ibharuneafe said that AWLA provided the widows with bags of rice, garri, cartons of spaghetti and ingredients.

She said that beneficiaries were selected across different states.

Also speaking, the South-East Coordinator of AWLA and Founder of HHWSF, Mrs Gozie Udemezue, said that female lawyers formed the organisation to promote the rights and welfare of women and children.

She added that the organisation provided pro bono and medical services in collaboration with her foundation, HHWSF, for the indigent widows.

“Basically at HHWSF, we are forming a community of widows called Blessed Widows Nigeria where widows come together to build and raise one another.

“We are raising widows who

pay school fees for the children of their fellow widows and feed and support other widows.

“It is a circle that when we help you, you help another,” she explained.

She explained that the foundation was funded through support from organisations in the U.S. and the U.K, families, individuals, and donors on social media, as well as its own members.

On her part, the Enugu State AWLA Coordinator, Mrs Ifeoma Nwagbara, described the outreach as an annual event done during the Nigerian Bar Association Annual Conference to assist widows and educate them on their rights.

A beneficiary, Mrs Catherine Obodoekwe, said that both organisations had been impactful to widows in Nigeria as they educated them to be resilient in life.

According to her, being a widow does not mean we were withered. (NAN)

Edited by Maureen Atuonwu