June Campaign
We are thrilled to launch our #ACT4Widows campaign this June. Help us restore hope, dignity and economic independence to vulnerable widows in Biharamulo, Tanzania, through our Sustainable Widows Life Skills (SWLS) Project. This vital programme provides trauma relief, vocational training, and seed funding, enabling these women to start their own businesses, lift their families out of poverty, and secure a sustainable future for their children. Help us by raising £15,000 this June!
In many parts of Africa, widowhood is not only a personal loss but could also appear to be a societal burden that is unfairly placed on women. When a woman loses her husband, she often faces more than just grief, she encounters stigma, discrimination, shame and social isolation. The deeply ingrained cultural norms and traditions surrounding widowhood can unintentionally strip women of their dignity, rights, and even their livelihoods. Tanzania has around 1.4 million widows, with about 24% of female-headed households living below the poverty line.
The stigma of widowhood affects not only the women but also their children. Many fatherless children face barriers to education and economic opportunities, further entrenching the cycle of poverty. Without intervention, the discrimination widows endure can have lasting consequences for their entire families.
Through our Sustainable Widows Life Skills (SWLS) project, we aim to tackle these barriers, by helping them to recognise and discover their skills and talents, so they can apply this to support themselves and their families. In so doing, they contribute to the wider development of their entire communities. Our SWLS project is designed to empower widows through four key stages:
- Counselling: We provide the widows with counselling in a supportive environment which allows the women to come together, lift the sense of failure, and recognise that they are not alone.
- Vocational Skills Training: Our aim is to help the women discover their natural talents and innate skills by providing training in profitable skills, alongside inheritance rights and HIV/AIDS.
- Business Skills Training: We provide training towards a ‘village MBA’ for the widows, where they learn the real tools needed to set up and start a business.
- Seed Funding: Once the widows have gone through the program, we provide one-on-one assistance to help the widows develop realistic business plans for their projects. At the end, we provide small seed funding to help them launch their projects to support their families.
For widows not already in ACT’s programme, they will also have the opportunity of at least one or more of their children added to our child education support programme.
Your contribution will help us expand this vital project to Biharamulo, Kagera. By raising £15,000 this June, we can provide the training and funding necessary for widows to start their own businesses, lift their families out of poverty, and secure sustainable futures for their children.
Thanks to a generous group of ‘ACT Champions’, every donation to this campaign will be matched, pound for pound, up to a total of £5,800.
Donate today to double your impact!