"I and my children were beaten and kicked out of our house by the
brothers-in-law. We live by begging, in continual fear"
WOMAN OF PURPOSE – UGANDA TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES AND CHANGING WIDOWS’ LIVES IN UGANDA
PRESENTATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL WIDOWS CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY 23 JUNE 2006 IN LONDON
By Jane Opolot Executive Director, Hope For Widows Project under Woman Of Purpose.
This is a special day in the widows’ rights movement calendar. It is a day when we come together to take stock of what we have achieved so far in the quest for widows’ emancipation as well as lay goals and strategies of what we want to achieve in the future. There is a lot to be shared but because of limited time, we cannot delve into all the details of what we want to say. But all in all, I am thankful for this opportunity, to address this historical gathering. My presentation will focus on part of our work in promoting and protecting the rights and dignity of widows as well as fighting conflict, social injustice and dependency. By way of background to this presentation, I must point out that Woman of Purpose is based in Eastern Uganda in a rural district called Pallisa. Because of high levels of illiteracy in rural areas, the people are still subject to tribal customary law, which happens to be at great variance with basic human rights concepts of equality and non-discrimination.
Although human rights guarantees are enshrined in Uganda’s constitution, widows still suffer gross human rights abuse because of the existing social-economic circumstances. First of all, widows in rural areas like Pallisa are often unable to take advantage of these constitutional guarantees due to illiteracy and ignorance. There is still a wide gap between the formal written law and customary law which has continued to dominate rural areas like Pallisa, and as such, customary norms and rituals continue to affect the lives of many widows. (Details of these discriminatory customs are enunciated in the baseline survey report of our Hope For Widows project.)
The main thrust of our work has been Widows’ rights education. Woman of Purpose is operating among poor and illiterate communities. Naturally, poverty is both a cause and effect of discrimination and the discrimination is merely exacerbated by illiteracy because people are generally ignorant of human rights. The situation is worsened by the patriarchal culture which particularly prejudices against widows. For example, when a woman’s husband dies, she is customarily inherited by a close male relative of the deceased husband. As if that is not enough, often the family property is taken by the relatives of the deceased husband. Consequently, these practices deprive widows not only of their human dignity but also of resources like land for cultivation and other household assets. Many times, even the children, are arbitrarily removed from the custody of their mothers especially where the widow resists being inherited. This is because children are considered to belong to the father’s clan. Because of the poverty and deprivation resulting from such practices, it is not uncommon to find orphans, especially girls, dropping out of school in order to help their widowed mothers earn a living by digging in other people’s gardens for a few shillings or becoming domestic workers in the homes of their more affluent relatives in urban areas.
It is against this background that Woman of Purpose, in partnership with Widows Rights International, started a widows’ rights education program under the auspices of the Hope For Widows’ project. Through this program we are sensitizing the communities, especially tribal and cultural leaders about the importance of recognizing and respecting widows’ rights. Sensitization is done through local seminars, informative posters, music, dance and drama.
Although we are advocating for legal reform in order to have laws that protect widows’ rights, we realized that the current constitutional regime in Uganda is still able to protect widows’ rights. We realized that what was urgently needed was to assist the communities grasp these basic human rights norms and principles in order to develop a mindset that rejects the different forms of abuse meted out against widows. A legal framework without favorable social-economic conditions renders human rights guarantees illusory. Indeed, merely passing laws is not sufficient because experience has shown that laws may not be effective in combating vices that are embedded in socio-cultural norms. Thus the need for sensitization to enable people change their negative perceptions and mindsets, which is often not very easy.
Through this program, we have trained Community Resource Assistants within the different communities, who assist in not only training the communities about widows’ rights but are also providing Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) –through negotiation and mediation- between widows and their in-laws, especially in situations where a widow’s rights are threatened. Through these ADR initiatives, we have been able to defend the rights of widows and we have many testimonies of widows who have been able to have their rights defended through these programmes. For example, many widows have been able to reclaim land that had been previously grabbed from them by their in-laws. We have also been able to assist widows resist forced marriages in the form of widow inheritance. Many people in the community, especially the clan leaders, who are one of our target groups have been enlightened about widows’ rights. Above all, we consider this program a success because through ADR, many widows are able to negotiate their rights in a patriarchal society, without going through the burdens of formal litigation, which is often expensive and way too complex, beyond the reach of most of these rural widows.
In addition to widows’ rights education and ADR, We are also involved in poverty alleviation projects. Poverty is a human condition characterized by deprivation of resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and human rights. Just like discrimination causes poverty, poverty also causes discrimination. For example, I am a widow from Pallisa, but I am not discriminated against and neither are my rights abused because I am economically empowered. Hence, our poverty alleviation programmes are geared at economic empowerment of widows as a way of fighting discrimination. It is not enough to just talk about widows’ rights when the widows are still poor, illiterate and sometimes do not have capital resources like land because their land has been grabbed.
Consequently, Woman of Purpose in collaboration with our widows’ groups have designed a number of poverty alleviation programmes ranging from vocational skills training and livestock-sharing schemes that address the economic needs of the widows in order to enable them generate income and alleviate poverty. In the same way, we also support widows in meeting the education needs of their children, for example, providing scholastic materials like books and school uniforms which are not provided by the government’s free primary education program.
Woman of purpose is currently supporting 100 widows and 40 orphans. With more funding, we hope to increase the number of both widows and orphans as well as expand our scope of operation to cover more areas. Many times we have been invited to the neighbouring districts but due to limited human and financial resources, we are not yet able to do much. Together, we can empower widows to live fulfilled and abuse-free lives! And when the widows know their rights and band together, they will make their voices to be heard not only locally but internationally!!
From WRI Newsletter 8 - Full copies of the Newsletter available from WRI office or download PDF