2021 World Suicide Prevention Day: Group set to empower 50 Widows in Oyo
A humanitarian group, Peacemaker’s (PM) Guide, in conjunction with Delight Owoyemi foundation, on Friday set to empower 50 widows to mark the 2021 World Suicide prevention day.
The event was held at the Social Welfare Centre, Samonda, Ibadan, and the theme as “suicide and young people causes and effects”
The Voice Media Trust (VMT NEWS) reports that World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), celebrated annually on September 10.
The event represents a global commitment to focus attention on suicide prevention.
The theme of WSPD 2021, “Creating hope through action,” reflects the need for collective, action to address this urgent public health issue.
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The Director General of PM guide, Prof. Ademola George, said the event was about empowering distressed women and those that depend on criminal acts and armed violence for their living at the community level.
George said, “the risk factors which trigger suicide could be traced to mental disorders, previous suicide attempts, specific personality characteristics, genetic loading and family processes in combination with triggering psychosocial stressors.
He said the event is to empower and develop for sustainable livelihood as an alternative.
In order to curb the rate of suicide, especially among widows in the society, the founder of Better Together (BTG) Africa, Delight Owoyemi, is set to raise the bar and stop women, mostly widows from commiting suicide but rather give them hope and reasons to stay alive.
To celebrate his 50th birthday, Owoyemi is set to give out the sum of N50,000 each to 50 widows in Ibadan to add up to their existing business.
“The project is more of an enterprise empowerment programme, we set you up on your business, not giving you money to do whatever you want to do with it.”
” Empowerment in Nigeria is not done the right way as people just go there to collect cash gifts but end up not doing something tangible with the money.
“The distribution of empowerment in Nigeria is not the same way as it ought to be, so that’s why ours is totally different.
“Tell us what you are doing and how can we fund it, how can we grow it for you, because it’s my birthday we’re looking at giving them N50,000 each. We could inject more funds but it depends on what the person is doing” he said.
Owoyemi said, “in order to keep the collectors in check, they are expected to refund the said amount back to the organisation after six months. However, it is not mandatory, but whoever refunds the money will have access to bigger grants.
Earlier in his speech, the founder of Shafaudeen in Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke, called on the government to develop and implement awareness campaigns on suicide.
He said efforts are to be targeted at not only reducing the risk factors but also strengthen protective factors most especially in childhood, adolescence and married life.
Olagoke maintained that the government must encourage functional education towards job creation for self and others as well as creating enabling environment for SME’s development to keep people’s body and soul together for meaningful engagement.
A participant in the empowerment programme, Olaniyan Olayemi, expressed optimism and remains positive that the money will be disbursed to them soon.
