FIRST INTERNATIONAL WIDOWS DAY CELEBRATION IN TANZANIA

Cherie Blair, Cilla Black and Nancy Dell'Olio launch International Widows Day - 23 June 2013

 

The President of the Loomba Foundation, Cherie Blair runs in the 5k Charity Walk/Run in Hyde Park for International Widows' day in London. Hundreds of Runner start for the 5k charity walk and run proceed by Cherie Blair in Hype Park London.  23 June 2013

UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon being presented the first edition of the research study book, Invisible Forgotten Sufferers: The Plight of Widows at the United Nations, New York, 2010.

Chairperson of TAWIA Madam Rose Sarwatt, General Secretary Mr. John Shabani

and some TAWIA members @25 years anniversary of TAWLA

Tanzania Widows Association (TAWIA), will celebrate International Widows Day June 23, 2015, and also it will be our First Anniversary of Tanzania widows day. All our members and friends are invited to participate at the event. Guests speakers from other community organization will deliver lead papers and present gifts to widows. You are cordially invited be part of the history.
You may call 0754 366 530 or 0713 778 778 for participation.
All welcome!

KNOW MORE ABOUT TAWIA 

Who We Are:

We are registered association residing in the United Republic of Tanzania.
Tanzania Widows Association (TAWIA) formed in 2014 as the go-to right and empowerment association, change-agent (and widows group with a message to connect collaborate and grow their visibility worldwi de in order to fulfill their mission.


TAWIA is an independent Non-Governmental and non - profit making Association registered under the laws of Tanzania. Our registration number under the societies Act (Cap.337 R.E: 2002) is 19708.

 It seeks to uplift the widows' and children status in Tanzania by enhancing the capacity and potential
of widows to respond through determined action involving advocacy, information and service provision, to meet their special needs and whose
main agenda is voluntary in nature. Currently we have over 500 members, which include regional branches in Tanzania.

More about the International widows day

As we know, International Widows’ Day was introduced to address poverty and injustice faced by widows and their children in many countries. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2010 and is observed annually on June 23.

It will be recalled that the first officially recognized International Widows’ Day on June 23, 2011 was marked with a conference held in the United Nations headquarters in New York. International Widows’ Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.

International Widows’ Day was initiated by the Loomba Foundation in 2005. The plight of widows world-wide has been the foundation’s focus since it was established in 1997. According to its founder, Raj Loomba, women in many countries experience great hardship after their husbands die. The observance falls on June 23 because Loomba’s mother became a widow on that date in 1954.

Like the Loomba Foundation, Tanzania Widows Association is committed to empowering widows with a view to eradicating poverty and alleviating their plights. Our organization had helped widows in the area of para legal, giving them foods, clothes and bring back some of their children to school. Also some widow through the help of  Tanzania women lawyers association (TAWLA) and the Legal and Human Rights(LHRC) some widows had as well taken legal action to enforce widow’s rights and their fundamental human rights.

Why We Exist?

Widows all over the world are a particularly vulnerable group subject to much prejudice. Allow me to challenge a few stereotypes. When I talk about the world’s 245 million widows, I am not talking about elderly women. All across the world, widows are often women in the prime of life, young women who are left as sole carers for their children, alone responsible for their shelter, food, schooling and wellbeing.

As the HIV/Aids epidemic and armed conflicts continue to wreak havoc across the world, widows are getting younger and facing tougher challenges. Many of these women face harsh discrimination and social exclusion on account of their marital status, which compounds the discrimination they already face on account of their gender. Positive steps have been taken in some parts of the world to address this situation, but there is still a long way to go.

115 million widows still live in extreme poverty. In many cases, their children have to leave school to go to work to plug the gap in the household income left by their father’s death; their daughters, in particular, are therefore often at a high risk of sexual exploitation. Worldwide, more than 500 million children of widows live in hostile environments, and more than 1.5 million of these children die before the age of five. Widows’ poverty, depriving their children of aspiration, education and future employment, affects the whole of society. It is a humanitarian crisis.

Research by the Africa Partnership Forum has shown that; had more women been educated and employed, Africa’s economies would have doubled in size over the last 30 years. The simple truth is that for every year of schooling a mother has received the likelihood that her child dies as an infant declines by 10%. To support women, then, is to support their children; and to support vulnerable women is to support even more vulnerable children. These statistics reveal the true value of enabling families to support one another.
 I believe that families are the glue that holds societies together; they create strong foundations on which to build, and they are the structures that help economic growth filter throughout the whole of society. Supporting widows strengthens society’s human tissue, keeping families strong even when they are broken by the death of a loved one.

The Association

The existence of The TAWIA is on what is to be done to tackle this issues. Supporting widows catalyses a developmental multiplier effect: as women gain knowledge, children learn. As women become employed, economies grow. As women are given equality, nations become stronger, and justice and equity across the board become attainable. It impacts directly on poverty, their children’s education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health and on the spread of HIV/Aids (six of the eight millennium development goals).

Our Activties

Our trust is currently focusing on widows in Nigeria, but we believe that this assistance should spread across the globe. Countless lives have been tremendously imparted by this organization. The numbers of widows in our care have gone above 500 since we got our registration last year.

1. We provide monthly gifts of food items to them.
2. We pay their house rents and help their business
3. We give them free medical treatment once in a monthly.
4. Provide orphans with school fees, our love and give them attention.

We call on you today to support this foundation to reach its full potential of raising champions from the dust

Donate

When you commit to give a monthly gift to Tanzania Widows Association and join us as a LifeGiver, you will experience this deep satisfaction again and again, as you help give hope to widows and their children, orphans, youths and families in crisis.
Your gift will go to work month after month to help us sustain the lives we save, to help feed the widows , hungry children,free medical treatment to provide safe shelter.

Join us to bring back hope for widows