 The United Nations observes 23 June as International Widows Day to draw attention to the voices and experiences of widows and to governize the unique support that they need. In keeping with this, the widows and often support society have drawn the attention of Nigerians to carry these set of people along in their daily living. For many women around the world, widowhood is a devastating loss which is magnified by a long-term struggle for basic needs, human rights and dignity. They may be denied inheritance rights to what they rely on for livelihood or evicted from their homes, fussed into unwanted marriages or traumatizing rituals. In commemoration of this day, this group says, it is time to celebrate widows and encourage them to work harder. The convener of the group, Dr. Tio Thommos and his partner, speaks more on widows' plight. Our biggest objective is to take the widows, the African widows, out of poverty and take them to a stage where they will be a blessing to other widows. Today we want to encourage our women not to be discouraged in respect of what they are facing, and to make use of what they have learned both in the past and what they will learn today to establish themselves and become women of substance. With their theme thriving in hard times and to show more support on behalf of the United Nations, the group did not relent in awarding some deserving individuals who have shown passion for humanitarian services. The God who kick-streated it, I'm a lover of widows and orphans. I like in any little way I can to be a blessing to those set of people. For me, that's part of me to give and I'm part of such group in both places. May God give every leader in Nigeria their hearts to give to the ordinary person in the society. Some of the widows share some of their experiences. Since two years I lost my husband, so since then nobody to take care of my children, I have six children. I have four children. It's God that be taking care of me, my children, I don't see anybody, no family, no anybody, but God is with me. I've been a widow for about fifteen years. When I lost my husband, the people from the village, they sent some people, some delegates to come to my house to view what we had to collect, what they could collect. International Widows Day works to encourage action in achieving full rights for widows, highlighting the need for more research and statistics into violence, discrimination in poverty suffered by widows and developed policies and programs to address the problem. Justin Momo for Plot TV Africa. Well joining us to discuss the International Widows Day and the challenges these women face is Jennifer Omotaya-Thomas. She is the vice president, widows and often support society of Africa. Hello Mrs. Thomas. Hello, good evening. Good evening. How are you today? I'm fine. Thank you. Okay. So can you tell us more about this theme for this year's Commemoration by the United Nations? We thank God it was a huge success celebrating the women and their children. Today's celebration is all about the widows and their children because we all know all the troubles that women go through when their husband dies. And we want to give hope to these women so that they will know that they have people they can rely on and help them to become better women in the society. So that's what today is set aside by the United Nations to celebrate widows. And we were able to help the women to learn different skills so they can feed themselves and as well as their children. Okay. We hear of solid ideals in terms of cultural demand. Has the narrative changed over the years? I think are you clear with me? Yeah. You know the solid ideals we've heard about that have been meted you know on women especially widows has the narrative changed over the years? Well I don't think culturally it's been changed because we see the same things happening over and over and over where women are made to marry someone they don't like or they are chased out of their homes because their husband is dead. The program today is centered on encouraging the women having an identity whether their husbands are alive or not. So as a woman you should have your own identity, run your own business outside the family business. So even when the man is no more you can see stand on your own, be an independent woman. So that's what the program is all about equipping the women to stand out in the society. Okay in terms of policy framework how do we push you know how do we push for stronger laws that would sum up some of the challenges women go through in terms of disinheritance and other issues? We need to look at some of these cultures and abolish them because a lot of them are not making sense. I've seen a situation where a husband died and the woman was chased out with three children and the family of the man took over the house not minding what the children would go through and the woman that is shattered after losing her husband. So I think some of these cultures that are not making sense should be abolished and if we really love our sex and love our neighbors we should not be punishing someone because a husband is dead. Sex is inevitable, it can affect both old and young, they are cases where the wife dies even before the husband. Do they chase the man out? So why should it be that if the woman that suffers why? I don't think it's right, so it is my time we look into all these funny cultures and abolish them and let there be equal rights for both the man and the woman so that's why we try to help them by equipping them to lend trade and also give them some loans or sometimes they give loans and sometimes they give money to start a business so enable them to be independent. So also some of these cultures should be abolished, cultures that are not making sense and are not helping the women and as well as their husbands, I mean as well as their children when their husbands are dead should be abolished. Alright on a final note, what are some of the special events that took place today in marking the day for these widows? Some of the skills acquisition we looked at, they were taught how to bake, they were taught how to make soup, they were taught so many skills that they can work on and we normally give them money to start off. So and we've done some skills acquisition on the 29th of May before now and for those who could not participate we repeated it again so that they would all benefit and be able to do something for themselves. Well thank you so much Mrs. Jennifer Omotayo-Thomas, vice president widows and often support society of Nigeria for joining us to celebrate the International Widows Day tonight. Thank you. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news, please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.