Kalewa and Susana are two women from the Ndiwa Widows Women group and is partnering with Watoto wa Dunia on their empowerment village. Ndiwa discusses the situation she faced when her husband died...

“My husband died fifty years ago. My first-born was eight years old and lastborn was breastfeeding. At the time of his death we were not stable economically hence I was left without shelter, food, clothing but with a responsibility to take care of our six children. Since then I have lived in misery until when my older daughter went to work as a housemaid that she built for me a four iron sheet house. My best-educated child reached primary level class seven. No child went to secondary school. Currently I have 5 grandchildren to take care of and the hut cannot accommodate us all - some of the children are sheltered by the neighbours.”

Susana, another Ndiwa widow describes another challenge the widows face - access to quality health care...

“I feel inspired by the current move of Ndiwa and WWD {Watoto wa Dunia} for their focus. One problem that really affects us is the accessibility to health facilities as the possible means of transport is a bicycle. The hospital is at Makindu -100km away and the nearest clinic is not fully equipped. All the time you will be referred to Makindu General Hospital where you have to pay for hospital bills on admission, blood transfusions is feared by majority because of the high rate of malaria which results in a prevalence of anaemic patients. This has resulted to a lot of death and we are forced to carry the dead on bicycles tied on our backs through the bushes from Makindu hospital.”

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