Supporting windows and educating fatherless children and orphans in Africa

"Father to the fatherless, defender of the widows...

He places the lonely in families"

Widows are amongst the most vulnerable group in Africa. In traditional rural African societies, women marry young and stay at home to look after the children. The husband is the bread winner whose earnings provide financial support for the family.

The death of a husband is traumatic and with no state support, necessitates that the widow finds some form of paid employment. Typically this would be a low wage job which is sometimes insufficient to pay for food and shelter.

Often the need is such that young children who should be attending school are required to take up some form of under age employment to supplement their mother's income in order to feed the family. It is this financial burden which makes it necessary for the children to be withdrawn from school. In many African countries education even at the primary school level is not free and is therefore not affordable for poor families.

"The pain becomes even harder to bear when the children see you as part of the problem" Read the widow’s perspective and a widow’s poem.

ACT is providing skills training for the widows to help them start their own businesses in order to sustain their families. See our widows training page for more information.

ACT is bringing hope to needy widows.