Widows are frequently abandoned and ignored, and they are frequently sent to the margins of society. They have occasionally been forced from their husbands' houses, and their families have occasionally left them and their children homeless.
They must undergo challenging rituals in some tribes to demonstrate that they were not involved in their husbands' deaths.
They become vulnerable as a result of these circumstances, and they end up in a miserable and lonely life.
It is in the bid to change the narrative that Olori Ayo Yemisi Jaiyeola, who established God’s Wives International and Serendipity House Widows’ Foundation (SHWF), two groups fully registered as incorporated trustees.
With this, they collaborate with kind Nigerians to mitigate the plight of widows in the country.
She told Daily Independent that the organisation wants to build a Widows’ centre where widows can come in and be safe from the troubles of society.
She said the groups plan to raise about N500 million to build the centre.
She disclosed that it took them about five years to save money to buy a piece of land on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, not far from the RCCG camp, adding that in the last seven years, the mission has been able to take care of 900 widows yearly out of the over 4,000,000 widows in Nigeria
Jaiyeola is calling on public-spirited Nigerians, organisations, and corporate groups to support the mission to build the centre and support widows with a safe haven.
She said that features to be in the centre will include two hostels for 500 widows, self-contained apartment units for widowed families, studio apartments for working widows, a central kitchen/dining facility, offices/administration blocks, a vocational acquisition centre, a 250-seat chapel, health care clinic, in-door games/recreation centre, outdoor recreation centre, 500-seat capacity hall for events, farmland, borehole/ water production plant area.
The missioner of the group disclosed that they also have a monthly Legacy Fund where individuals and corporate organizations can give a N5,000 minimum financial monthly support for the group.
However, she stated that the organization needs to urgently fence the land before the end of October if it did not want to lose the six plots of land the third time.
The land owners have been so unkind with how they have forcefully shifted us from one land to the other because we don’t have money to officially tie down the land.
The government is not helping as survey plans are too costly to pay for. Widows don’t have money to do this.
She said that it will cost N2 million to the fence and put a gate on the property.
She is calling on kind Nigerians to donate for this purpose urgently so that the work on the land that has just commenced will come to an expected end.
She further says that donors at the widows’ home will have their names on the walls and buildings at the shelter.