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Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Otiko Afisah Djaba, has urged widows to take advantage of the various programmes initiated by government to improve their economic status.

According to Otiko Djaba, policies such as Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Planting for Food and Jobs, Free SHS and One village, One dam, One District One Factory amongst others, should be embraced by widows to change their own destiny and that of their children.

“Widows have been a strong force and pillar for the development of countless children and families, who otherwise would have been destitute, hungry and school dropouts,” the Minister stated on Saturday, June 23, at the celebration of the 8th International Widows Day Celebration.

“So there is the need to network and ‘band together,’ organise themselves, make their voices heard, and be represented on decision-making bodies in their communities, nationally, regionally, and internationally for the change they seek,” she told thousands who converged at the Trade Fair Cnetre at La in Accra for the event.

International Widows Day was established by The Loomba Foundation to raise awareness of the issue of widowhood. On 21st December 2010, as a result of the proposal introduced by President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted 23rd June as the International Widows Day.

The Gender Minister noted that progress can be accelerated only when widows themselves are fighting for their rights and called on widows' associations to learn to take advantage and empower their members to undertake studies, profiling their situation and needs.

“They must be involved in the design of projects and programs and instrumental in monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of new reform legislation to give them property, land, and inheritance rights; protect them from violence; and give them opportunities for training and employment,” Otiko added.

There are currently 823,562 widowed persons (including men) in Ghana of whom 700,000 are females representing 86%, according to the Ghana Statistical Service Population Census in 2010. In Ghana the emphasis is on female widows because most of the negative, harmful and discriminatory actions are against the female widows.

“Apart from the pain of losing a loved one, it is also the loss of the main breadwinner and supporter of their children,” Otiko observed and called on relatives of the deceased husband to avoid taking the widowed through all forms of discrimination and stigmatising during such difficult times.

“People of Ghana, Widowhood has a brutal, traumatic and sometimes irreparable impact on widow's and the children. It is important for us to be reminded that Ghana has ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality by 2030 amongst other policies that highlight and provide for the rights and protection against the abuse of the human rights of all citizens,” she cautioned.

She explained further that, according to the Ghanaian law under the PNDCL 111 Interstate Succession Act, “in the absence of a Will, the entire estate of the deceased is given to the next of kin, the compulsory beneficiaries are the children, spouse and parents of the deceased.

She warned that “the penalty states that ‘any person who defies this law commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a minimum fine of GHC50,000.00 and not exceeding GHC500,000.00 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding one year, and the court or tribunal shall make such orders as it considers necessary for the reinstatement of or reimbursement of the person thus ejected or deprived’.”