The Widows

Abba Father’s House desire is to rescue disadvantaged children and widows from oppression and depression caused by poverty as a result of death of their loved ones.  Our purpose is to give children and widows love, spiritual and practical care, skill training and encouragement to enable them to have hope for the future. In March 2006 the vision became a reality.

Picture of what life means to widows

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has left many women widowed and infected by the disease and yet majority of the women in Uganda are house wives.  This means that when a woman loses her husband, her whole world crashes down.   She does not only grieve for the loss of her husband but she is also frightened of the huge burden she has to take on her own, the expenses involved especially as she has no income at all.  Without our help, widows face daily challenges of having no food, clothing, education and general care for themselves and their children and often widows die very young of trauma and treatable diseases due to poverty.

Helping widows

Most people who try to help others tend to think or profess that “they know how they feel”, but this is not true because all of us are unique beings and we all react to issues differently.   It is wrong for anyone to assume that they understand how others feel unless they have been in a similar situation or it is revealed to them by the Holy Spirit.  Having gone through the same situation at some point in your life still does not guarantee you knowledge of how someone else might be feeling about their situation, all we do is try to imagine how other people might be feeling.  The good news is that no matter how big the problem, God is bigger than all situations that happen to us.  That’s why the bible tells us to pray in all situations and to believe that God is faithful to give us breakthroughs Philippians 4:6-7.  We purpose to journey with the widows on a step by step basis until they come to a place where they too can identify their needs be able to make right choices and apply them into their individual circumstances.

This is how AFH is making a difference to Widows

• AFH staff express sympathy, kindness, comfort and listen to widow’s needs in order to identify their under lying issues. This gives widows hope and assurance that we are for them and not against them. It also releases them from fear and gives widows liberty to tell us more about themselves and to work wish us.
• AFH staff seek to find solutions to widow’s problems instead of being judgmental.
• We help widows to understand their needs and we encourage them to adapt and apply the skills and knowledge that we give them into their individual circumstances and that frees them from fear and motivates them to have hope for a bright future.
• Through fellowship, widows are helped to identify the root causes of the problems which keep them in bondage and they are receiving inner healing through prayer, practical help and knowledge of God through the bible Isaiah 55:1-13. We also have a Ministry Team work book to enable trainers to minister to widows in all situations.
• At the moment, widows are producing such things as necklaces made from local material, table clothes, paper bags, and other handcrafts for sale while we wait for a building to be constructed where all widow’s activities will be conducted.

Our future plan is for the widows to get involved in our various project works to enable them to  acquire saleable skills from which they can earn a living.

The widow’s project

The widow’s project is one of the various mini-business projects created by AFH to provide skills training for the widows, reducing their emotional dependence on charity as well as providing an essential income for the home.   We trust that projects like bridal wear, tailoring, arts and crafts, catering, bakery, poultry, gardening, growing mushrooms etc will enable widows to learn basic income generating skills from which they will be able to earn a living.  While they will be learning new skills, AFH will also encouraged them to introduce their own skills (if any) to make the project more interesting and active.

Funding

Our UK team holds fund raising events such as car boot sales, cake sales, auction etc from time to time to enable us raise money to create projects as well as maintain adequate care for the children. Money raised from the widow’s project will partly be used to help us set up small projects for the widows who will have successfully completed their training at AFH.  We have a support page from which those who wish to make a difference to children or widows can choose a project to support.

After training

AFH will issue certificates of competence to the widows who will have successfully completed their training.  Some of the widows will be offered employment at AFHM while others will be given financial assistance to enable them to set up their own mini projects depending on the success of the widows project.

Will you be a star to the widows?

Thank you so much

Juliet Najja