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Group promotes widows’ welfare in Salima District

Malawi Widows Association (Mawa) says it has stepped up efforts to help improve the welfare of widows in Salima District.

The organisation’s national board member, Gladys Munyenyembe, said in an interview that among other things, it seeks to eliminate all practices that impinge on widows.

Widows captured after the meeting in Salima

She said this on Monday at Ngolowindo Primary School in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kalonga in the district where the organisation held a meeting with chiefs and other relevant stakeholders.

“When a woman loses a husband, she is sometimes forced to engage in widow cleansing and wife inheritance, which we feel is an infringement on her rights and also fuels the spread of HIV.

“We also want to create a society that is free from property grabbing when the husband dies,” she said.

Mnyenyembe said the organisation wants to uplift the widows’ welfare by making them self-reliant. “We want to help them start small-scale businesses to support their children,” she said. Munyenyembe said due to the death of a husband, some women and children resort to deviant behaviour. One of the widows, Dorothy Bester from Mangwe Village, said the organisation has helped fight for the welfare of widows in the district.  n

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