Most of us know people whose spouse passed away and are now widows or widowers. Such a condition, in our experience, invites compassion and sympathy among the immediate family. In some rural areas of Nigeria, however, this isn’t always the case. Part of HEAL’s mission is caring for abandoned widows and their children and I spoke with Rev. Leo Okonkwo about this important issue.
Economic hardship and lack of access to medical care, make widowhood a common problem in remote rural areas of Nigeria. “Hardcore diseases like AIDS and Malaria play a large role in spousal death”, says Rev. Leo, founder of the Messengers of Justice Congregation (MOJ). HEAL has worked to address the issue of poor sanitation, which makes contraction of these preventable diseases all too common. The effects of widowhood, however, are just as dire as the causes.
Because the husband is the breadwinner, the wife and children most frequently become vulnerable. Whatever property they owned, the husband’s brothers take it and justify their theft with horrible lies. “They will falsely claim the dead husband signed the land over to his brothers”, Rev. Leo says. If the widow has a son, who stands to inherit his father’s estate, the uncles will attempt to steal their nephew’s birthright. If the parish priest knows, he is often unable to help.
HEAL supports the MOJ in their work of confronting this injustice. The story of Papa Junior, who died of high blood pressure and was survived by his wife and son, is illustrative. Rev. Leo recounts, “Her brothers in law came with machetes and chased her and her son out of their house and they ran to us! The MOJ’s filed a lawsuit against her in-laws and were able to reclaim her and her son’s property.”
Please help us to improve this kind of legal work, which is so important!
Rev. Leo and his MOJ community have been working for widows since 1997 when he first founded the Nigerian NGO, Water for Life. In their work, the self-emptying spirit of Jesus Christ animates them. Rev. Leo explains, “Jesus needed to die, to go down, in order for the poor & marginalized to be lifted up. We the MOJ’s are called to have this mind among ourselves that was in Christ Jesus as Paul tells us in Philippians 2:6-11.” HEAL stands squarely behind the MOJ’s in this fight for widows and orphans. Join and support us in any way you can!