Gov’s wife empowers 32 widows, mothers of triplets, others

To assist the needy in the society, wife of the Lagos State governor, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode empowered 32 widows, 14 parents with multiple births and also provided succour for a woman in need of hip replacement.

Speaking at an empowerment programme organized in conjunction with Hope for Women Foundation (HOFOWEM) in Lagos on Monday, Mrs. Ambode stressed the need to care for the poor in the society. According to her: “Societies thrive when the burden on widows are made lighter and the less privileged are assisted in a number of ways to better lives. No society thrives in an atmosphere where this class of people are continuously ignored or schemed out of welfare calculations.

On her part, Mrs Oyefunke Adeleke from HOFOWEM noted that “we watched the trend in the society and discovered that enough help was just not coming for the widows. Aside of all the family bills which the widow had to foot by herself alone, she is daily tormented by suspicious and unfriendly in-laws and wicked cultural stereotypes.

‘Widows are not even the only needy ones in our society. There are women who gave birth to many babies from one pregnancy. This was not their expectation and they were clearly not prepared for what they got. This category of women also needs to be supported, to be able to cater effectively for the bundles of joy that God had given them.”

In attendance at the programme were the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Lola Akande, her Youth and Sports counterpart, Uzamat Akinbile- Yusuf and the South West women leader of the All People’s Congress, Chief Kemi Nelson, among others.