By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Effort by the Rivers State Government to eradicate widowhood practices in the state is yielding results.
This is because the once high rate of widowhood practices in the state has drastically reduced.
The permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs Atosemi Eson Teetito, made this disclosure during a chat with theportcitynews.com in her office in Port Harcourt recently.
She attributed this achievement to the effective sensitization and awareness campaigns carried out by the ministry in collaboration with other gender advocacy groups in the state such as Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), GADA, etc.
On the modus operandi adopted in curbing the inhuman practices, Mrs Teetito said the ministry and its gender advocacy group partners, in most cases, talk to the women who perpetrate the widowhood practices and after convincing them to stop the act, give them some gifts to enable them sustain themselves, since the act is part of their means of livelihood.
As part of effort to eradicate the practice, the permanent secretary said that a law prohibiting the act was already in place in Rivers State, adding that in no distant time, widowhood practices and other related acts such as female circumcision would soon be things of the past.
On the recent international widows’ day celebrated by the United Nations, she said the ministry of women affairs, in collaboration with a non-governmental organization (NGO), organized a skills acquisition for about 30 widows to mark the event.
According to her, the widows were trained on soap making and other skills, adding that the knowledge would help them to fend for themselves and their families.
