The St Louis Widowhood Project in Lagos dates back as far as the 1980s when widows contacted the sisters in our convent in Ebute-Metta, seeking help for themselves and their children. For the first number of years, the sisters helped them on an adhoc basis, helping them to meet their immediate needs. In more recent years, the sisters recognized the importance of helping the widows to become more self-reliant and in 2020, a Micro-Finance Scheme was officially launched to provide interest free loans to widows to either start or expand their small-scale businesses. Last year, Misean Cara, came on board to help finance the scheme, to which we are very grateful. To date, over 30 widows have been empowered through the provision of interest-free loans.
To read about the St Louis Widowhood Project in Lagos, click on the article in Issue 157 of our monthly newsletter Musings.