New Delhi: In an effort to help below poverty line (BPL) widows of the country, Believers Church started a drive to make these women financially self sufficient.
The drive was started on International Widows’ Day will reach out to 8000 women across 20 states of India by end of July.
These widows were selected by the volunteers of Believers Church in several dioceses across the country. The widows were gifted income generating things like sewing machines, cooking equipment, livestock etc.
The widows received the gifts happily, while some even shed tears of joy and expressed their gratitude to the church for the humanitarian work, Business Standard reported.
The list of states include, AndhraPradesh, ArunachalPradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Several ministers, Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assembly and other dignitaries are part of this drive on their respective constituencies.
“In our country widows still have to struggle to fit into a patriarchal society which has no place for them. Our sisters & mothers face discrimination in the society. The initiative is to facilitate poor widows, who are living under risk of starving in the rural areas. Through this drive we are just trying to help them earn their livelihood in order to lead a healthy and respectful life,” said Dr. K.P Yohannan.
The United Nations first acknowledged June 23 as International Widows’ Day in 2011 to raise awareness about the poverty, alienation, violence, homelessness, health problems and human rights issues faced by widows around the world.
Since then, Believers Church regularly marks the day by carrying out these drives to empower and enable widows across the country.