 Welcome back to the breakfast and plus TV Africa. It's international widows day and we're talking about celebrating widows the theme for this year according to the United Nations is invisible woman and invisible problems and we've invited Mr. Thomsen here he is the executive director of the NGO it's widows and often support society of Nigeria. Good morning Mr. Thomsen. Good morning how are you? Fine so this year international widows day could you shed more lights on the day for us? Okay international widows day was actually introduced to address poverty and injustice faced by widows and their children especially in Africa countries and by grace the international widows day is being celebrated worldwide now it was recognized by United Nations in the year 2010 and every June 23rd widows and their children have been celebrated. Okay so Mr. Thomsen we know that according to the UN statistics there around 258 million widows worldwide and that one in more one widow basically is poor. Could you tell us more about some widowhood practices and you know widow abuse that we see here in Nigeria? Well what my observation widows here in Nigeria especially the vulnerable ones are passing through a lot in the in Africa country because by our observation most widows when they lose their husband they hardly get help from the society only few NGO and the government is not coming up and especially in this hard time when we have a 19 and all that the widows they pass through a lot but I think awareness is coming to to the public and to government and to NGOs now that widows are not to be neglected because they are facing a lot of individual challenges and the responsibility of we NGO is to take care of them especially widows and of society of Africa we we have line-up of programs for widows and orphanage children likewise the widow children thank you all right I want us to also speak a little bit more on the types of support systems that you know should be created for widows in the society the local government level on the state level maybe and maybe on the federal level are there things that you know your organization suggests you know that should come into play to support widows in the society well what I suggest if the local government can build up a budget for widows because government local government they are the grassroot government because they wish out to people if they can build up budget that for widows that would be very fine some local government are doing well but if other government can join especially in this time where things are difficult if government can join the NGOs to make a budget like we NGO we have we have we have budget for and for widows every month we have program for widows we have program a welfare program for widows we have scholarships key for their children we have back-to-school scheme for widows children that back-to-school scheme is a program whereby we gather books we gather books and there's book a side book a box school back a school lunch back we get them ready and visit the widows and their children so that their children can return back to school you know so we have a back-to-school program for widows children so all these things if local government can have a budget that can support this program it would be very very fantastic and all right finally I also want to ask they need to do more yeah well I think I would agree that you know some of these things should be created but I also want to ask you know because we're Nigeria and there's peculiar challenges at widows face culturally and traditionally in certain states across Nigeria is there you know conversations on you know ways with which these things can be put to an end completely or ways through which a widow can protect herself and her family from some of these traditional okay so I'm asking them if there are ways that widows can get better protection against some of the traditional and cultural actions that seem abusive to widows in the Nigerian society we hear about things that they have to go through after the husband's past in the village we hear about losing their property to their husband's brothers sometimes they have to be married off to their husband's you know siblings or things like that is there ways that widows can be better protected against certain Nigerian traditions and cultures oh yeah thank you so much this is a very beautiful it's a lovely question I must say that I expect this from you the only way government this thing we have some culture that we need to abolish you know like for instance some some widows when there are some women when they lose their husbands the the culture will say you must marry the man if you don't marry the man you forfeit everything the man asks you don't have anything they say you forfeit everything you must marry the man what if there is no love between the brother that they are insisting that the woman must marry if there is no love what will happen and the other case is where the brothers we have converse family find a very big converse you know they will say oh the man is there so our brother is gone and we have to take over we have to take over you can't manage the resources we are the one that will manage the resources so the woman will be asked to step aside and in process they will inherit all the properties they will inherit all the properties and the woman will start from zero one so what I'm trying to say is this if government can put up a policy that says if a woman if a man died the property actually belongs to the to the uh to the um to the family to the woman and the children the children and the uh and the woman owns the property because they owns the man so if we start having such kind of policy that says once a man died whatever the woman whatever the man owns belong to the wife and the children so nobody will come from the blues and say oh and the and the uh uh the brother and the sister I want to take uh I'm taking over this I'm taking over the bedroom meanwhile the man has a wife and has children so I think if uh if we can have this policy please that can protect women and children just like in civilized world you know in civilized world we women we widows the widows they hardly suffer because whatever happened the government have provisioned for the for the widow and for the children but here in Nigeria you know we have a lot of so many different culture so all those culture the government should abolish it they should abolish culture that say oh we will take the woman to the village let's creep by by force and she must drink water they say yeah if the if the if the man if the man is young they will say oh this is very unusual why will this man die in the motor accident so let's take the woman to the village she must drink the water they used to bathe the corpse of the man that's terrible women are suggested to a lot of problems that's terrible that she must drink she must drink from the water they used to bathe the man just because the man died as a young man no anybody can die at an age. Mr. Thomas indeed we we do need stronger laws to make sure that widows and their children do not suffer like they currently do in Nigeria well thank you very much Executive Director of Widows and Offends Support Society of Africa have a great day thank you so much all right that's where we end the show today on the breakfast and plus TV Africa we've talked about a lot the plight of widows International Widows Day just to say go out there support the widow supports their children and very important however you can because if we're waiting for those laws to be enacted it will take a long time so you know in as little as we can as little as we can help let's always try to extend that love to widows around us in our community and also don't be that wicked uncle or wicked husband's brother you know it's easy to talk about laws you know when they you know affect other people but when you know it's time for you to play your role as a support system for late brothers family you know and kids it's it's it's good advice you know to men to ensure that they always step up you know play the role that you can play if you can't pay their school fees then at least find ways that you can support and protect them from the ills of you know some of our cultures and traditions in Nigeria regardless of what it looks like so yes be that person that should be able to step in and support yes and truly it's easier to say you know for women to own their own you know make their own bag and all of that but we know what the situation of the country is you know how some men will rather have their wives stay at home and not work so these are the societal considerations out there you know just really to say extend that hand of love and hopefully that we can get better laws that would guarantee the rights of women not just widows but also people who are divorced because they they face similar challenges all right stay with us i'm back here of course at 9am with news brief but for now it's goodbye and join us on our social media platforms at plastic the africa on facebook and instagram i am usaugi ogman and i am and netta philix bye