The plight or state of widows in rural communities in Nigeria is appalling and has long been avoided.
This should serve as a call to look profoundly and intentionally into the lives of widows, especially those living in rural communities.
Widows suffer a whole bunch, ranging from finances, emotions, materials, and lots of other essential aspects of which they require supports.
Although the standard of living for people all over the world is rapidly advancing, the condition of people in rural communities is sickening and demands urgent attention. Except for a few educated ones who are aware of their rights, many of them suffer from different psychological stress which leads to depression and anxiety and sometimes addiction to substances.
In the Niger Delta region, for example, there are harmful cultural practices that are ritualistically approached, in the event of a husband’s death, widows are often distanced from their communities and families and this happens in so many other communities e.g. The eastern part of Nigeria whose culture is to scrape the hair of a widow as a sign of respect to their ‘dead’ husband and sometimes the widows are transferred to the brother of the dead husband and therefore claims the property, too.
The cultural practices make it hard for them to understand what a woman who has just lost her husband feels.
They are majorly alone due to neglect which they get used to and never talk about.
The loss of a spouse is one of the most negative life events and brings about an imbalance, especially in rural communities where the husband is usually the breadwinner. This results in the widow searching for a means for survival and in the long run becomes segregated, they tend to keep mostly to themselves and suffer a whole lot because many of them see themselves as burdens all of a sudden.
They rarely speak up because they mostly are being controlled with the fear of being alone and the loss of self-esteem as women, especially often realizing that they lost an important and close person.
They feel the loss of personal contact and human association, therefore they tend to withdraw and become unresponsive. And most people render blind eyes towards them.
The widows in rural communities need helps as they are not fully getting the attention they crave, many of them lack food as they have children and families to look after. Many of their children are out of school as well and these situations need urgent action.
The life of a widow in rural communities is nothing to write home about. A change in the mindset of society is required on how to treat these women as well. They should be given special places as well. You can make life better for a widow out there with your donation.
