A non-profit organisation, African Wonder Women Organisation (AWWO), is set to challenge what it described as the stereotypes and injustices allegedly meted out against African widows, both on the continent and the diaspora.
The convener, Folaji Fasanya-Omoyeni, told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that she aims to improve relationships and encourage women to speak up against stigma, stereotypes, and biases through the event they experience.
She said the group plans to hold a virtual event on the subject with the theme; “Every Emotion is Valid” and is scheduled to hold on February 12, 2022.
Mrs Fasanya-Omoyeni said AWWO was birthed following the loss of her husband at the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is an initiative that I set up while grieving the loss of my husband during the pandemic. The biases, stigmas, stereotypes, and name-calling I went through helped me understand my emotions and encouraged me to find healthy outlets for expressing them,” she said.
She noted that while grieving her husband, she connected with widows and others grieving the loss of loved ones.
She added; “They talked about their losses and let me know how my ability to articulate my feelings and emotions during the grief.
“So, it occurred to me that we needed to do more of this type of talking, we needed to encourage African widows to express our feelings and let the world know the African treatment widows face because what we experience, following the loss of our husbands or partners, is different to what other widows around the world experience.”
Fighting stigma, stereotypes
Although based in the United Kingdom,
the creative IT consultant stressed that she still experienced stigma and
biases while living in the diaspora.
She said; “Growing up in Africa, I know from what I read and what people talked about- that widows living in Africa experience these biases, but I never actually imagined that widows residing in diaspora would also experience similar degrading treatment.
Credit: Instagram | premiumtimes
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