Widows | Women for Women International

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Nearly 50% of Widows Live in Poverty: We Can Change That

Many widowed women lack economic opportunities and live on the fringes of society, socially stigmatized and often blamed for the loss of their husbands. In some societies, they are killed for practicing witchcraft or are subjected to living lives of seclusion in grief, undergo funeral rites such as...

This Woman Survived the Rwandan Genocide and Inspired Change in Her Community

"I had a large family but out of that large family only me, two of my children, and my brother-in-law’s children survived,” she says. Before the genocide, Caritas worked as a farmer, and her modest income was enough to feed her immediate family.

#SheInspiresMe: Fazila Efendic from Bosnia and Herzegovina

In her small shop in the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center, 65-year-old Fazila sells flowers to mourners and visitors who come to honor and remember the 8,000 men and boys who were massacred there in July 1995. Before the genocide, Fazila lived in the town with her husband Hamed, her son Fejzo...

Meet Three Mothers Working Their Way Out of Extreme Poverty

Around the world, mothers are united by their shared experiences, for the sacrifices they make to put their children's needs first, and for the inspiration they give us all.

A Vision Ahead of Them: Women Strengthen Rwanda

This week, people across Rwanda are coming together to remember the terrible genocide 21 years ago, and to stand together for the future of their country. It has been a long journey of recovery for Rwanda, and every step of the way, women have played a critical part in rebuilding their country –...

#SheInspiresMe: Phibi in Nigeria

For Phibi, a program graduate in Nigeria, a small savings bank made from mud clay represents the power she has to change her life – and the life of her daughter, too. Phibi is a 40-year-old widow with two children. She had been forced to drop out of school and marry after her father died suddenly...

#SheInspiresMe: Roseline from Nigeria

When her husband died suddenly a few years ago, Roseline, age 50, knew she needed to find a way to support their eight children on her own. What she didn’t know was that she was going to have to fight for the right to her late husband’s property, including the profitable palm, coconut, and wild...

#SheInspiresMe: Francoise from Rwanda

“She found me empty, but left me a totally different person,” says Francoise Niyodusaba about Jane Abatoni, her life skills trainer. “She inspired me to hope again and feel alive again.” When Francoise first met Jane, she remembers how, “I […] didn’t want to meet people. I used to hide from my...

#SheInspiresMe: Remzije from Kosovo

When Remzije lost her husband at a young age and was left to raise their five children alone, she never imagined she would become a local business leader. “I never thought that I could make it on my own, […] that I would be able to provide for my family myself,” remembers Remzije, who up until that...

#SheInspiresMe: Zoje from Kosovo

After losing her husband at a very young age, Remzije Berisha was left alone with her five children and without any income or support. Yet, she found the strength to move forward, recalls her friend and colleague Zoje Shala, WfWI-Kosovo's Senior Life Skills Trainer. With International Women's Day on...

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