Widows support
Widows face seizure of their children, possessions & homes, harmful traditional practices, sexual Gender-based-violence, armed conflict, extreme poverty & starvation as well as social exclusion. Despite these, they have remained invisible to the public and policy makers. Their children often have to endure extreme poverty, child/forced labor, prostitution, or are used as bargaining chips to guarantee widows of their economic assets and rights. Collectively, and through no fault of their own, they have little hope of reversing a life of diminishing options. Whereas a small group of commendable researchers and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have sought to focus on the issue, with intermittent support from the United Nations, the lack of mainstream attention has meant that the issue has remained under the radar of even the most pro-active governments
We support abused widows under the following programs
Economic empowerment
We partner with various organizations for example Global Fund for widows through the Table banking project where widows’ economic empowerment activity is boosted. Uptake of government funds set aside for women, where we team up with ministry of Public Service and Gender Affairs to expose widows to the funds which include the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) and UWEZO fund. This helps us to achieve the following Sustainable Development Goals SDG 1: No poverty and SDG 2: Zero Hunger because widows are now Economically independent.
legal and rights
Lerne Adams foundation organization team's up with partners who have legal expertise like FIDA Kenya, Commission of Administrative Justice (CAJ) and Law Society of Kenya whereby we offer paralegal trainings to our widows. Through this we are able to achieve Sustainable Development Goals SDG 5, Gender Equality and SDG 10, Reduced inequalities. This also enables widows to represent themselves in courts and fight for their rights.
Skills training
Cottage industries like beadwork, knitting and crocket to widows. For instance, we have skills training centres in different counties like in homabay and Kisumu where we train widows and equip them with skills like tailoring skills, computer skills and knitting skills.
lobbying
Lerne Adams foundation participates in formulating and lobbying for policies that outlaw gender-based-discrimination-practices against widows. For instance, participation on National Gender Sector Working groups meetings. In 2016 we drafted a widows’ Bill which was presented to the Government containing laws that protect widows from any form of abuse or discrimination.