Empowering widows gives me fulfilment – Zipporah Oladejo

Mrs. Zipporah Omowumi Adenike Oladejo is the founder of a Non Governmental Organisation known as ‘Widows Rejoice’ which she uses to touch the lives of widows and most vulnerable members of the society.
Her NGO will on August 13 this year carry out it’s yearly empowerment programme for widows at her office situated opposite 2nd Gate, Isheri Oshun (GRA) off Channels Television Road, OPIC Estate, Lagos State.
In this interview with Ifeanyi Eduzor, she speaks on what motivated her to set up the organisation, the journey so far and many more.

Can you tell us about your self and what motivated you to set up an NGO that caters for widows.
Well, my name is Zipporah Omowumi Adenike Oladejo, the founder of ‘ ‘Widow Rejoice’ Foundation which was primarily set up to provide adequate help for the widows who are the voiceless, most neglected and most vulnerable members of the society.
It will interest you to know that we’ve been doing this for the past five years and the report and thank you messages we get daily from our beneficiaries encouraged us to do more.
Actually, it all started when I clocked 50 years and there was this demand and calls for me to celebrate it but I said no because there was something God was laying in my heart which was to impact life especially on the most vulnerable and voiceless women and that helping this category of people should be my 50 years thanksgiving and that was how we started and I think about 50 women attended the inaugural edition and ever since five years ago, we’ve been doing it non stop to the Glory of God.

Come August 13, you will be rolling out the drums for another empowerment programme for the widows, what are we expecting that day.
People should expect nothing less than an improvement from that of previous years. You know It gives me joy and fulfilment when I give out things to widows and I implore them to avail themselves of this opportunity and be part of us on August 13 at our office located opposite 2nd Gate, Isheri Oshun GRA, off Channels Television Road OPIC, Lagos State.

Casting your mind back to when you started this NGO, would you say you’ve achieved your set objectives
I’ll say am really achieving it. You know , widows go through a lot of challenges. They go through psychological trauma and apart from this, many of them are being denied of their basic rights. Many of them suffer from disinheritance; some are even sent away from their matrimonial homes with the children because of so many traditional practices while many still go through many traditional practices that prevents them from inheriting their husbands property. We have been able to impact on their lives as well as give them hope and I just thank God that I’m doing this because I believe this is what life is all about; which is giving hope to women who are hopeless. I know that a lot of them are not happy and our vision is to bring back happiness to them.

One will like to know if your organization do follow up on this widows after each empowerment programme

The answer is of course yes. We do more than follow up because apart from the August 13 event that we’re planning, we also organise quarterly empowerment programme for the widows. We just finished one about two months ago before the International Widows Day where we empowered widows on skill acquisition; training them on how to make soap and detergent. We train them on how to generate funds so that they can be self reliant.
You will agree with me that many of these widows especially in the rural areas are illiterates, many of them didn’t go to school and so they live at the mercy of others. What we’re now doing apart from the yearly programme is a quarterly empowerment and skill acquisition programme to empower them.

Does your NGO give out any grant to them after the skills acquisition programme
Yes we do that. What we basically do is to try and provide some of the materials needed for their take off bearing in mind that many of them are poor. Take for instance, in soap making, we empower them with all basic materials needed because some of them don’t have the capacity to buy them and gradually when they start, they build on that.

Bearing in mind that all these programmes are capital intensive, how do you raise money to finance them.
Finance has been a major challenge we are facing and I want to believe that people reading this interview will one way or the other come to our aid. Although funding has been a very big challenge but so far so good since the last five years, God has been so merciful to us and we’ve been marching on. I have to say that some individuals who like what we’re doing have been of immense help to us and that’s how we’ve been able to sustain the project.
I am however using this platform to call on whoever that’s ready to help us financially; whether government, corporate organisations or philanthropists to support us because this is a good course to reach out to the less privileged and the most vulnerable and disadvantaged widows in our society.

Have you made any effort to contact the State’s Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development for them to know what you’re doing
We are making plans to do that but it has been individual effort since we started with support from friends and those who believe in our vision but this year, we’re making efforts to reach out to the Ministry.

Apart from funding, what other challenges are you facing
Another major challenge is transportation. This is because any time we want to have our programme, people want to come and most times, I don’t even know where they’re coming from. They want to come and be part of it because for them to really see somebody that cares for them is not easy and so, transportation is a major problem. I spent so much transporting the widows to this place because many of them don’t even have the capacity to pay their transport fares.
Even with the recent increase in pump price of petroleum products, I have been telling God that there shouldn’t be a hindrance to this project. How we are going to do it, I don’t know. This year, we’re having people showing interest from Ikorodu and Apapa.
Last year we had people from Makoko, Ijegun and Ikotun. Over 100 women are coming from those axis and I don’t even know how they’re going to get here. So, transportation has been a major problem.
Another problem we’re facing is the issue of storage. You know that giving goodie bags to hundreds of people is a huge task. Infact in my house, gifts takes over my house and my children will not have anywhere to sleep which is a major challenge.In a nutshell, I will say that finance, transportation and storage facilities are the major challenges we are facing but them we’re fighting on and happy we’re doing this

What has been the role of your Church in all these. And what level of support and corporation are you getting from your husband.
Well, the Church has been supporting us in their own way. Ours is a growing Church but in their own little way, they give us their environment to use. They also set all the platforms for me to use and supports us financially though most of our support come from individuals. As for my husband, he has been a wonderful partner; giving me all the necessary encouragement as well as moral and financial support.
I want to say that my husband is fully in support of the NGO because if he’s not in support, I won’t be doing this. He gave me the Church environment to use. Even when gifts takes over the whole house, he shows understanding and the children too are all in support of what I’ m doing. When the time comes, even my children joins me in the market to do the purchases and so it has been a wonderful support from my family.

Experience has shown that many Non Governmental Organisations are affiliated to many foreign NGO’s, is your organization affiliated to any foreign Organisation
For now, we’re not in partnership with any foreign NGO. Though we’re on social media and I am sure many of them are following us. They know what we’re doing and what the mission is doing and we are networking here and there. But that does not mean we’ll not welcome them. Actually we are waiting for them to come so that they can help us to carry this load because we can’t carry it alone.

Where would like to see your NGO in the next five years
In the next five years, I would like to see the mission reaching out to over hundred thousands of people because as I’m talking to you now there are many widows out there who we don’t even have their records. We have women we call half widows, child widows and women that don’t even know the whereabout of their spouses. Some went out in the morning and never came back and till now, they’re still looking for them and their wives are suffering hardship and pain.
So, my expectation in the next five years is to see the mission being empowered with capacity to reach out to more widows; turning their lives around and making them happy.

What is your message to the widows all over the country the
My message to the widows outside there is that they should not loose hope and that there is a future ahead. We know that the Devil has struck and took away their bread winners which make them to be going through all manners of hardship and challenges but there is a future and there’s a God that knows the future.
I want to remind them about the story of Naomi. Nobody thought that Naomi could make it and even Naomi herself never believed she could be remembered by God but look at how God changed her situation by raising Ruth and through Ruth, Naomi’s life got a turn around.
So, whoever that’s out there should remember that although the Devil strucked taking away the Head of their family and they’re battling with so many loads that looks so heavy to be carried but then the future will be bright. They should not give up or loose hope rather they should continue to believe in God and strive hard because God is the owner of the future.