Imagine seeing your future filled with hospitals, medical bills, and sickness and with no means to help yourself. Then imagine someone giving you an opportunity to be independent, sustainable, have a means to put food on your table for your children, and to be able to buy medicine that will keep you healthy. This is how many of the women we work with feel, as they face a bleak future as single mothers, themselves being ill and having to care for their children.
Our women’s empowerment program started a year ago, when we first tried out the idea of setting up small shops/kiosks for these women. The goal was to give them confidence and independence, a means to live, feed and put their children through school, and buy the medicine they desperately need to keep them healthy.
On this occasion, we received sponsorship for two HIV/AIDS Women’s Empowerment shops. We interviewed the women, to make sure they felt they could carry the responsibility and were ready to begin. One is a widow who is HIV positive and has two children. She was extremely thankful and excited about starting a small shop, as she feels this will give her a chance to turn her life around.
The second woman takes care of her six-year-old grandson, who is also HIV positive. She sees the shop as an avenue of hope as she tries to support herself and give the best help and medical care possible to her grandson, who is now attending school, which is a great encouragement to her.
We brought some canned food items (donated by some ladies in Lagos) to help stock their shops, as well as the funds to build the shops and fully stock them. They also will be setting up an easy but efficient accounting method. We have nurses who will be visiting them regularly, making sure they are managing their books properly and using the sponsorship wisely.
Through the help of many thoughtful people, we also provided a large amount of food items, canned goods, mosquito repellents, children's and baby clothes, shoes, toys, books, and many other items to each of the mothers when they visit the hospital for their meeting once a month. They enjoy these items (even if some are second hand) as it encourages them to attend the counselling meetings and helps to give them a good diet and keep their immunity high, which is so important.