Smile Attracts Smile Foundation (SASF), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), has empowered 25 widows with food, cash, clothes and shoes, among other items, as a way of putting smiles on their faces.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that at the maiden edition of the foundation’s meeting on Saturday in Abuja, the widows were full of praises to the foundation.
Major items such as rice, spaghetti, indomie, seasoning, vegetable oil, salt, bread, Ankara materials, shoes and cash were distributed to widows.
Mrs Bukola Adewumi, founder of the SASF, said empowering widows was a dream come through for her, adding that her mother was also a widow and knew what she went through during the period, until she passed on.
”This is like a burden to me, my mother was a widow, I knew what she went through, the struggle and I have nursed this ambition from my university days and also given the little I had then,” she said.
Adewumi said she had been giving her widow’s mite before now, but that it was time to establish a foundation that would be readily available to cater for their needs.
She noted that her greatest joy would be to see the widows smile, stressing that it was the essence of establishing the foundation to assist widows.
According to her, SASF will not only be about sharing food items, but would also ensure that the widows are trained on entrepreneurial skills, in other to have a ready source of livelihood.
She explained that the foundation would acquire land and build a widow’s home, in a bid to have projects running there.
”Whatever money we make as proceeds will be plough back to the widows,” she said.
Adewumi said the foundation would have a data base where the names and details of all widows would be saved, for possible support, adding that widows, who register with her foundation, would no longer be a liabilities.
She then called on public spirited Nigerians to contribute to the foundation in the drive to help the widows out of doldrums, adding that their financial support would help cushion their plight.
Mrs Elizabeth Aledare, a resident of Lugbe Airport road, lauded the foundation, adding that the gesture was a divine intervention for her as she and her children had nothing to eat at the moment.
She said that one of her children was billed to return to school come Sept. 21, but that the fear of getting her food had overwhelmed her, until the foundation intervened.
Aladare, 53, from Kogi, who had been a widow for 12 years, said she would remain grateful for the swift intervention by the foundation.
Mrs Chinese Ozor, one of the beneficiaries, a 40 -year-old widow from Enugu, who lost her husband in 2016, commended the organiser, describing the initiative as a timely intervention.
She said such gesture would linger in her memory, while calling for support from Nigerians for the foundation to be able to reach out to other widows.
Mrs Binta Aminu, another beneficiary, 42, from Katsina, who lost her husband in 2018, said the intervention by the foundation was heartwarming.
Aminu said she could not believe her eyes with the items provided by the foundation, while commending the organiser for the kind gesture.
Mary Adeyemi, 23, from Oyo, who lost her husband in 2019, described the gesture as huge and wonderful.
The young widow urged other public spirited Nigerians to join hands with SASF to reduce the burden of widows in the country. (NAN)
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