Widows Rights International (WRI)
Suite 405,
Davina House
137-149 Goswell Rd
London EC1V 7ET
020 7253 5504

Welcome

	Patsy Robertson

Message from Chair

Welcome to the newly redesigned website of WRI. During the past year, the Trustees and I have been actively seeking to reposition WRI as one of the leading organisations working for social justice for widows. We have been fortunate in getting the support of the Staples Trust, a London based funding organization which has consistently encouraged us in our work.(more)

About WRI

Widows' Rights International is a small UK based, nonprofit, non-governmental organization founded in 1996. It mobilises action by working with international organisations, national governments and legal and other civil society organisations. To find out more about us, please click here.

Donate to WRI

"I and my children were beaten and kicked out of our house by the brothers-in-law. We live by begging, in continual fear”

This is the fate of millions of widows: traditional customs in Asia and sub-saharan Africa can lead to dire poverty and abuse of widows and their children. Widows lose their homes, possessions, livelihood, as well as  their children to their husband’s family. Even when laws exist to prevent the abuse of widows, ignorance of the law, or cultural habits, impede access or implementation of legal remedies.  WRI works with local partners at grassroots levels for social justice and human rights for widows.

Help us help these widows now. Click here to donate to WRI.

Quotes

....My continent Africa has many widows, of all ages, in all conditions and degrees of poverty, isolation and need. In my own country Mozambique, the civil war left a legacy of hundreds and thousands of widows and fatherless children. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has devastated family life across the continent leaving uncountable numbers of orphans and placing an additional burden on older women, many of them widows, who have to take on the care of sick and dying children and grandchildren in need.
These brave and resilient women symbolise a situation which cuts across culture, religion
and nationality.

Extract from a message from Mrs. Graça Machel to the opening of the 1st London International Conference on Widows (2001)