Festive Celebrations In Yaounde

Victorine Biy

23 June 2011

Hundreds of women joined the international community on thursday to celebrate the maiden edition of the International Widows’ Day.

The tripartite hall of the Yaounde Conference Centre could hardly contain the crowd. Scores of women that make up over 500,000 widows in Cameroon made their presence highly felt with chants and dance yesterday June 23 as they joined their counterparts worldwide to celebrate the first edition of the International Widows’ Day. Activities in Yaounde were placed under the patronage of First Lady, Chantal Biya. Present to cheer were members of government, the diplomatic corps, development partners and the Circle of Friends of Cameroon, CERAC.

The widows who are said to endure extreme poverty, ostracism, violence, homelessness, ill health and discrimination and inhuman custom practices all said “no tears today”. They all hailed the Government of Cameroon via the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family for honouring them through activities to mark the event. They said they were happy not because they lost their husbands but because they have been given the opportunity to know each other.

The Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa recognised the impressive mobilisation of widows at the event and announced government’s constant support to promote and protect the rights of widows in the country. She assured the women of measures that government has put in place to caution their plight. The holding of capacity building sessions for widows in women empowerment centres was announced. Some 500 widowhood files pending processing for pension will also be followed-up by the ministry while 100 widow children below the poverty line will also undertake holiday jobs and benefit from didactic material in prelude to the next academic year.

Mrs Marie-Thérèse Abena told widows that measures are underway for an inter-ministerial partnership to ease the procedure for widows and associations to obtain support for projects. The Minister was treated to a standing ovation when she announced the training of 2,000 widows at a reduced cost of FCFA 20,000 down from 200,000 on ICTs by their partner, the African Institute of Computer Sciences, IAI Cameroon. Also remarkable was the pronouncement of the declaration of the Government of Cameroon by the Minister which confirms Government’s will to assist widows.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon in a statement on the occasion revealed, that there are approximately 245 million widows in the world, with more than 115 million living in poverty. He said death is inevitable, but that Governments can reduce the suffering that widows endure by raising their status and helping them in their needs. This, he said, will contribute to promoting the full and equal participation of all women in society.

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