Foundation fetes widows
A non-governmental organisation, Bernytos Foundation, has held an annual gathering for over 100 widows in the Weija-Gbawe Municipality to provide them with “continual help and succour”.
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Christened "Pleading the Cause of Widows in the Municipality”, the event was aimed at providing basic livelihood gesture to the beneficiary widows to assure them of greater esteem and ease of socio-economic integration.
As part of the celebration, widows were given food, music and entertainment, counseling, and material items as a way of sharing in their loss and condition.
Initiative
The Chief Executive Officer of the foundation, Bernice Attuquayefio, said the initiative was part of her dreams to help the vulnerable in the community, adding that the foundation was geared towards alleviating the plight of widows and orphans.
She indicated that the various activities were to give widows reason to smile and feel a part of the society, adding that it was to pay particular attention to their struggle to have the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter after going through painful experience of mourning and sometimes degrading burial rites and other forms of widow abuse.
“Over the years, the Ghanaian society has been afflicted with problems of hopelessness for widows and street children such victims are in these circumstances with no fault of theirs.
We entreat widows here to be strong and to work hard to be financially independent as they prepare for life’s eventualities,” she said.
She explained that the children of these widows were sometimes exposed to uncouth behavior, leading to increased social vices among them that put themselves and other people in danger, which eventlly make them burdens to their families and the society.
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Beneficiaries
A widow, Elizabeth Lartey, indicated that losing a partner could sometimes be devastating, adding that some of their loss was magnified by a long-term struggle for their rights and dignity, as well as basic needs for themselves and children.
“Over the years, the life of a widow is stigmatised, shunned and shamed, and many of these abuses go unnoticed, or even seen as normal.
While others see it as a curse, others even associate it to witchcraft.
Such ideologies have led to abused of many widows, but now due to civilisation, some of these activities have ceased,” she said.
Ms Lartey expressed appreciation to the foundation for caring for the welfare of widows in the community, adding that the foundation had done a lot to seek their welfare, but as individuals they would work hard to better themselves.
She advised widows to invest financially in themselves, adding that “it is time to take stock of our lives and prepare for a better future”.
Background
Bernytos Foundation was founded and registered on October 4, 2021, to formalise its activities for catering for widows and the vulnerable.
It was against this background that the foundation has organised and planned several events since its establishment to affect and put smiles on people's faces, especially widows, orphans and even street children.
It has notably organised a “Street Feeding Projects” which was aimed at providing some food items to the homeless in the environs of Oblogo, Weija and Tetegu in the Greater Accra Region to put smiles on their faces.
The foundation also visited the seed Royals Orphanage home in 2022 with assorted items estimated to be about Ghؓ¢20,000.