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

Welcome

About Widows Rights International

Widows Rights International is a small UK based nonprofit, non-governmental organization working in the field of human rights for widows and their children. Its current goals are to:

• Assist grassroots and community based organizations in developing countries especially those in sub-Saharan Africa which support widows fighting for their rights and combating practices which lead to their dire poverty and social exclusion
• Raise awareness and understanding of the discrimination and violence encountered by widows in many countries and post conflict areas
• Promote the status of widows’ rights on the international human rights agenda

Regional conflicts and the scourge of HIV/AIDS have led to a significant increase in the numbers of widows worldwide. The time is now ripe to end the silence on the abuse of widows and the lack of concern for their human rights.
It is time for the national and international bodies to take widowhood issues seriously; the consideration of practices harmful to widows is still rarely included in, for example, work around violence against women.
It is still necessary to confront the common assumption that widows are elderly. However the reality is that the majority are young, willing and able to make valuable contributions to the development of their communities and nations.

Help WRI to achieve these goals.

To find put more about us, please click here click here.

Help us help these widows now. Click here to donate to WRI.
Reg Charity 1069142

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)