By Albert Futukpor
Walewale (NE/R), Dec 31, GNA – Hajia Lariba Zuweira Abudu, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, has presented food items to 2,000 widows in the Walewale Constituency of the North East Region to put smiles on their faces during the festive season.
Each of the 2,000 widows drawn from various zones within the Walewale Constituency received five kilogrammes of rice, a piece of cloth, cooking oil, tomatoes and GHc50 cash.
Hajia Abudu, who is also Member of Parliament (MP) for Walewale Constituency, presented the items to the beneficiaries during this year’s Widows Summit held at Walewale on Friday.
The Widows Summit, an initiative of the MP for Walewale, is an annual event, which began last year, to bring the widows together and extend support to them.
Hajia Abudu, addressing the widows during the summit, said the gesture sought to touch the lives of the vulnerable in the area to among others feel part of the festive season.
She said, “We have a lot of women, who are living under poverty. Most of them are widows. I just thought that what do I do to make them happy at least during festive seasons. So, last year, I sought sponsorship. So, they helped me with some rice, clothing and I added some money and gave them to 650 widows.”
She said, “So, I realised that they were very happy. Somebody told me that Hajia, today, my children and I are going to eat our favourite soup because I have GHc50. Another one said that last year up to date, I have not taken rice. So, today, what you have given me, I am going to cook rice.”
She said this motivated her adding “This year, I sought sponsorship again. They supported again and that is why I have increased the number to 2,000. So, we are touching lives of 2,000 widows in the constituency.”
Hajia Abudu expressed gratitude to the Office of the Vice President, Office of the Chief of Staff, Bank of Ghana, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, adb Bank, Consolidated Bank Ghana, and the Samira Humanitarian Foundation for supporting the initiative, assuring that “I will always do things to touch their lives when I have the opportunity.”
She spoke about the kayaye situation, saying efforts were being made to ensure that those, who were willing to come back, would be reintegrated in their communities and equipped with skills to earn a living while the elderly ones would be enrolled under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme.
She emphasised need for parents to send, especially their daughters to school to enable them attain their potentials.
Mr Yidana Zakaria, North East Regional Minister, lauded the initiative and suggested that it be scaled up across all the constituencies in the region to support the vulnerable.
The beneficiary widows were full of praise for the MP for Walewale, saying her support to them was timely.
The Local Council of Churches, Walewale Municipal, presented a citation to Hajia Abudu commending her for her unwavering support to the widows in the municipality.
The citation, which was signed by Reverend Paul Sumani, and Reverend Nii Noye Thompson, Chairman, and Secretary respectively of the Local Council of Churches, Walewale Municipal, read, “The Local Council of Churches graciously confers this award of citation on you in acknowledgement of your indefatigable vision, non-discriminatory commitment to organise the widows summit to support the widows of all faith and ethnicity to realise their corporate dream and mandate.”
GNA