The government has been urged to introduce social protection and pro-poor policies to fast-track efforts to address the cyclical poverty status of vulnerable widows and orphans in Ghana.
Ms Fati Abigail Abdulai, the Executive Director of the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM), a gender focused organisation, who made the call, noted that widows were often left to their fate to fend for themselves and their children.
This, she stressed, had over the years contributed to worsen their plight and deprived orphans of basic needs, including access to education, and underscored the need for measures to address the menace.
“The loss of a partner often brings significant financial, emotional, and social challenges to widows. They migrate to other places where they can sell their labour for income or food. This means that the children are left to nurture, care for, and become breadwinners themselves,” she said.
The Executive Director made the call when she addressed widows at a memorial lecture in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, organised by WOM in collaboration with Mma Ayara Atampugre Memorial Institute to mark this year’s International Widows Day.
The day which was marked on the theme: “The Role of Mothers in the Education of Their Children: Lessons from the Life of Mma Ayara Atampugre,” was also to the late Mma Ayara Atampugre, who was an orphan and later a widow but played key role in the lives of her children and others in society.
Mr Robert Atampugre, son of Mma Ayara Atampugre, recounting the life of his mother, said she was born an orphan as her father died while her mother was pregnant.
She eventually lost contact with her mother in her early life and never made any contact with her again for the rest of her life.
As a housewife, she helped her husband on the farm and engaged in menial jobs, including bread selling, water fetching, groundnut frying, and finally porridge making and selling that could fetch her small money to help take care of her children.
Against her husband’s decision, she enrolled her four children in school and was tasked with paying their fees. “Her task got bigger when her husband passed on at a time their last three children were still in school,” he said.
He said despite this, she persevered and saw all her children through school, which he noted was worth emulating by all mothers.
Professor Constance Awinpoka Akurugu, a Senior Lecturer, Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), in a key note address, urged widows to draw inspiration from the story of the late Mma Ayara Atampugre and see to the education of their children.
Madam Beatrice Saa, President, Widows Network, Upper East Region, thanked WOM for their continuous commitment in building their capacities to cater for themselves and their families.
