Reverend Sister forms association to support widows

Just like Dorcas in the Bible who organised widows and orphans and provided for them, a Catholic Sister in the Dafiiama-Bussie-Issah District in the Upper West Region, has taken it upon herself to organise and assist widows.

Reverend Sister Gabriel Nonaah of the Daffiama Parish, now an octogenarian (80 years and above) has been doing the benevolent work since 1990 and now has over 780 widows under her stewardship called the St Monica’s Widows Association.

Sister Nonaah told TheSpectator that she had the call in a dream to start the association when she came to terms with the suffering of widows in the area.

“From the stories they shared with me about the physical and emotional trauma they went through, I was touched and decided to help them with the little I can and that birthed the association in 1990,” she narrated.

She explained that she was unable to cater fully for the needs of the widows but supported them emotionally with soothing words that encouraged them to live decent lives.

She said she had to step in to educate some of them about some outmoded traditions when she first started the association.

Through sensitisation, the association has been able to save many of the widows from such practices and encouraged to be economically active.

 “It has not been smooth sailing, we really have challenges because I cannot cater for 780 widows as you can see and many of them have dependent children and the number keeps adding on”, she said.

She explained that during the floods that occurred in the region last year which washed away young seedlings on people’s farms, many of the widows were affected and life became very unbearable for them.

She lamented that many of the widows were currently living in undesirable conditions and were mostly starved because they did not have any farm produce to depend on.

Sister Nonaah used the opportunity to call on benevolent institutions and individuals to come to their aid and support the women in whichever way possible either through skills training for the younger ones or support in petty trading.

 “I am very old now, so I have started training a young lady to take over from me but she will still need the assistance of people to be able to help these women”, she said.

She mentioned Lawyer Thaddeus Sory, Managing partner at Sory@Law, a law firm in Accra as one of their regular donors who had made a point to make food donation in large quantities to them annually.

Some of the widows interacted with this reporter and shared harrowing experiences.

 “I lost my husband six years ago and I have six children”, Madam Christy Kpianyanga, a widow narrated. She said her youngest child was seven years old and was not in school just because she could not provide for him in addition to the others.

She indicated that it was difficult providing three square meals a day particularly after last year’s floods where she lost her crops to the water.

Another widow, Afia Wadieh had four children when her husband died 10 years ago leaving them with no farmland to feed on. She was in a dilemma as she had no working capital either.

She was however grateful to the Association for the support it continued to provide since its inception.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa