The Full Story
Widows Economic Empowerment Programme (WEEP)
Asli Demirguc-Kunt once said that “in the face of widowhood, women often struggle with serious economic hardship” and our project focuses on tackling this issue. The project is for vulnerable and economically challenged widows of the Ebola and Mudslide disasters and widows of ex-servicemen by providing them access to undertake economic activities through community farming activities, small business grant, vocational and entrepreneurship training, and micro credit facilities.
The Problem
• Widows are often subject to physical, sexual, and mental abuse in Sierra Leone.
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• Widows are socially marginalised and culturally ostracized.
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• There is a practice called “Levirate Marriage tradition” which involves the widow marrying the surviving brother or leaving with nothing.
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• They are expected to lead a life of austerity, social segregation, and devotion.
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• If the widow has children, remarriage is especially frowned upon
The Solution
• By creating income generating opportunities, it provides widows access to undertake skills based economic activities. Since a great number of the widows are from poor households with greater risks of food-insecurity they are most likely to be involved in this.
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• JNJF will train and equip widows as community groups or individuals with the right skills to successfully run their business to sustain their families.
Statement of Need
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Widows have in Sierra Leone struggled endlessly with several issues that affect their everyday life such as physical, sexual, and mental abuse, and being socially marginalised. Due to the past conflict many years ago, Sierra Leone is home to an extensive number of widows who are defined by disadvantages, deprivations, violations of human rights and lack of freedom.
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There are no official statistics on widows in Sierra Leone, if our organization can provide a secure foothold in society for the widows, we will then be able to attain some form of a statistics on the widows in Sierra Leone.
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The project helps in also impacting the community, by providing goods for the community market to be purchased. By doing this they not only provide a source of food and nutrients and source of income, but they also directly influence the food prices.
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Recognizing the women as farmers and carrying out gender based human rights agrarian reform. This includes facilitating women’s access to credit, agricultural implementation, securing tenures and promoting and recognizing farming and the collective land rights by women’s group.
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With the implementation of WEEP JNJF will contribute to the following SDG’S:
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Human capital development - Good health and well-being:
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Providing good health, by cultivating nutritious products
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Diversify the Economy & Promote Economic Growth - No poverty:
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Creating generational wealth by providing financial management training.
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Women, children and persons with disabilities - Gender equality. Zero Hunger:
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Capabilities enhanced and economic enterprises of women established or strengthened for enhanced household income.
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Addressing Vulnerability and building resilience:
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Sustainable cities and communities.
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Reaching the most vulnerable communities, addressing vulnerability by creating change.
Goals & Objectives
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The main goal is the potential of forming a mainstream women’s empowerment for the widows from the very beginning of the programme, which will in turn promote livelihood for the women.
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Transformation of power structures and relations
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Enhance local organisational capacity through social mobilisation.