For many people across the country, the celebration of International Widows’ Day must have come as a surprise. The day was celebrated yesterday with the national focus on addressing the plight of widows and widowers in the country.

It was marked under the theme, "The unique contribution of widows and widowers and their associations in the reconstruction of the country.”

Sure, such a day exists? Why isn’t it prominent at all? Exactly what is special about it? These and many other such questions could have been ringing in people’s minds.

International Widows’ Day was declared by the United Nations and first celebrated on June 23, 2011, in an effort to empower widows and help them to regain their rights, which have long been ignored and violated. Although the day encompasses widowers, its priority leans toward widows as they are most affected than their male counterparts.

Widows are women whose husbands have died. After their husbands have passed away, many widows are forced to fight for their basic rights and overcome many obstacles to ensure their social and economic development. It is even worse in areas where cultural prejudices are still rife as well as widows with children to raise.

But their plight is largely overlooked by communities. Such is the burden and invisible situation that the UN says widows are absent in statistics, unnoticed by researchers, neglected by national and local authorities and mostly overlooked by civil society organisations.

Millions of widows across the world – they are estimated at around 245 million worldwide – endure extreme poverty, ostracism, violence, homelessness, ill health and discrimination in law and custom. These are abuses that seriously violate human rights and dignity of widows and their children as well as create obstacles to their socio-economic development.  

However, for a government that never shies from taking responsibility and addressing challenges of its citizens, the plight of widows and their children, irrespective of circumstances under which they became such, should be given the attention it deserves. Currently, a lot of attention is given to Genocide widows, but the ambition to empower every citizen to be self-sustaining should take into account widows.

Responsible stakeholders such as the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Rwanda National Police, AVEGA-Agahozo (the association of Genocide widows and widowers), and other widows associations should also consider devising campaigns that educate communities on the rights of widows and how to help them.