We at Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD) know that widows and their families suffer across the world as a result of economic deprivation, isolation and societal stress from food scarcity to natural disasters, conflict, disease and lack of social protection.
"Widows of all ages are increasing at an exponential rate, not just as a result of conflicts, natural disasters, harmful traditional practices and the frequent age gap between marriage partners, but now also as a consequence of Covid-19, which is killing far more men than women." - Margaret Owen OBE, founder of Widows for Peace through Democracy.
Already under strain, families world-wide are now further impacted by COVID-19 - and especially marginalised widow-led households.
There are widows of all ages. Did you know this includes around 1.5 million child widows, who are frequently mothers themselves?
COVID-19 is exaberating the crisis for widows by removing widows' livelihoods from the social economy, due to lockdown situations. But this desperate situation remains largely unacknowledged by the United Nations, governments and civil society, with few fragile and conflict-afflicted countries attempting to obtain even basic data on the numbers of widows, their families and their needs.
We particularly focus on widow discrimination in the most war torn and poverty-stricken countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, India, Iraq, Kashmir, Kenya, Kosovo, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.
For over 15 years, we have been collaborating with widows' organisations in developing countries, amplifying their voices to influence those who can bring about change.
We work with lawyers and governing bodies worldwide to lobby for the development and implementation of laws protecting widows' rights.
Our work urgently needs further funding so that, together with our grassroots partners, we can effectively respond to the devastating impact of COVID-19 on widows and their families.
COVID-19 may be gender blind but it isn't gender neutral. COVID-19 kills more men than women, hence it has been referred to as the 'widow-maker'. As well as impacting on the lives of widows, it is creating very many more widows.
Adedquate statistics are not available - with only 1 in 3 countries reporting sex-disaggregated COVID-19 cases and death data. This is hindering our ability to measure, respond and work with government policy makers, legislators, decision makers and funders to craft widow-responsive legislation, policies and programmes.
Without the inclusion of marital status widows effectively become invisible to governments, institutions and United Nations entities at every level of engagement.
Our partners are grassroots organisations in developing countries - well-placed to report on the needs of the most marginalised widows, i.e. those who are most adversely affected by the current pandemic of COVID-19 - including refugee women and their children.
"Many impoverished and marginalized widows are struggling to survive, frequently with their chilcren, in refugee and IDP camps, where vaccines, PPE, clean water, health care and other essential services are almost non-existent. Furthermore, they are easy targets for economic and sexual exploitation." - Margaret Owen.
Our goal is to accelerate change by amplifying the lived experience of widows through working with our partners to collect case studies and collate properly disaggregated data - and thereby bringing widows of all ages out of the shadows.
We know from our wonderful WPD partners globally that not enough is being done for widows of all ages by government policy makers, legislators, decisions makers and funders because of the sparsity of big data around widowhood.
WPD's recently published dossier, containing widows' testimonies, is the catalyst for transformative change where the data we need can speak to the witnesses gathered here: WIDOWS SPEAK OUT - Abuse and Discrimination, Resilience and Agency.
We disseminate our dossier to international, governmental and civil society organisations, regularly updating its case histories and contextual evidence from each country where widow discrimination occurs.
Via our webinars, we regularly bring together our grassroots parners with law-making institutions, to share information and data.
We need to further collaborate with our partners in COVID prevention work with information gathering and analysis, allowing widows in future to receive early warnings, updates, advice and guidance regarding pandemics.
Moreover, we need to establish the impact of COVID-19 on already impoverished widows and their families so that we can accurately ascertain their urgent needs.
Will you become a WPD donor and join us to accelerate the change? By making a financial donation to our work that amplifies the human rights of widows you can make a difference not just to one widow but to many.
Your donation will enable us to increase accurate, measured data collection, close data gaps and together we can build a foundation that recognizes and actively addresses the multiple inequalities faced by widows of all ages.
Help us to empower widows of all ages to demand their human rights though closing existing data gaps!
Our overheads are low - with one part-time employee and a virtual office. The rest of us are volunteers.
However, we do urgently need some seed-funding to develop the next stage of our collaboration with our partners, so that we can:
* respond quickly to the impacts of COVID-19 and current developments;
* strengthen our secretariat through building deeper continuity with our partners;
* continue our work with key changemakers at UN and government level to action change;
* advocate for widows' empowerment through expanding the technical capacity of our online platforms and increasing our social media presence;
* regularly update and publish the information on our freely accessible website database of information on widows' needs, rights and opportunities, as a resource for universities, media, governments and widows worldwide: www.widowsforpeace.org.
We need the ammunition to wake up government institutions to the global needs of widows.
We urgently need to put more detailed data in front of decision makers, many of whom are men, who are blind to the needs of widows. With properly detailed data we can make a strong, impactful case for global change.
Be part of the change and join us today!
WE CAN WITH YOU empower smart, targeted policies that practically benefit the poorest, most marginalised widows.
"If you listen to widows' stories they are not 'scientific'. So, you may want to study data, using CEDAW or any other tool. But if you use that data then who is interested in that data? If you use a slogan like 'build back better', what are you building back for? Widows have never had anything. So that's just a slogan in my opinion." Rona Foundation - WPD partner in Kenya.
"Widows have never had anything" "that's just a slogan" - lets change that to "Widows have something". We know that if we study and use the data practically then change for the most marginalised widows is possible so that "building back better" becomes a reality, not a slogan.
Our WPD partners like Rona Foundation will be holding WPD to account to ensure slogans become actions!
If your organisation or collective would like to join our WPD network, please do get in touch here.
Our founder, Margaret Owen OBE, has been advocating for widows' rights since 1995 at the Beijing Conference - when she hosted the very first international workshop on widows.
At a recent WPD webinar with our partners, Margaret Owen again spoke passionately about widows' issues, including the devastating impact of COVID-19...
"All over Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, WPD partners plead for support to keep their widow-headed families alive and safe and their children in school. We need to ensure their voices are heard at every level of decision making, so their needs are addressed and their crucial roles as sole parents recognised and given social protection." Margaret Owen.
Photos in campaign composite image are courtesy of our partners in Nepal and Kenya:
WHR (Women for Human Rights) and Rona Foundation.
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Sources of information and statistics are available on request.
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