The program had earlier seen the visitation and distribution of food items to Tender Heart Orphanage Home in Benin City.
Speaking, the founder of Forum of Nigerian Women in Politics (FONWIP) Hon Florence Igbinigie said, the reason for the empowerment is to see that those women are self sustaining, economically free to fend for themselves and family.
According to her.
“As the mother of FONWIP,I know most of you are senior to me but, you gave me that honour as the founder of FONWIP to be your mother, I appreciate you all for that,like our people will say,you can give birth to a king,but you cannot call that king a small man,you gave birth to me and you are not calling me a small woman,you have given me that respect.
May God continue to bless you in Jesus name,I decided to come during the 2nd batch of this interest free loan,the reason is because we have a body who have decided to support us andthat is why we increased the number to nine.
“That nine persons are to get a hundred percent increase in what we gave to the widows before. Some of the widows are among those to be empowered today,the major reason is to see that you are self sustaining. To make you live a life of sustainability,life free from stress. Some of you may be wondering why we decided to do it now,it is because we decided to do it during this sixteen weeks of activism against gender based violence on women and girls with a theme: “Socio-economic Right of Empowerment and Women Resilience Against Gender Based Violence.
“I know some of you have been violated by your spouses because of poverty, that is why we are doing this today. We are trying to help you become self sustaining.” She said.
Three widows benefited from the first batch in July, where they were empowered with an interest free loan of 50,000.00( Fifty Thousand Naira) While the second batch saw an empowerment of nine women with an interest free loan of #100,000 each.
The high point of the occasion was the distribution of food items like rice,beans,tin tomatoes and seasoning to FONWIP members and others around.
