• Tasks Igbo women on community development, relief programmes
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Wife of the late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca, has tasked Igbo women world over to be involved in self-help projects in their various communities.
She also urged them to embrace sisterhood and strengthen the ties of solidarity among one another.
The former Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, spoke at the annual assembly and patron’s gala of Igbo Women’s Movement Worldwide (IWMW), which took place in Paris, France from August 12-14, 2023.
On the theme: “A prosperous Alaigbo, today and tomorrow,” she urged Igbo women in Diaspora to continue to support relief programmes and the provision of basic amenities in Igbo communities.
According to her, these relief programmes and the provision should be targeted at people especially those communities with little or no government presence in terms of life-changing facilities.
She emphasised that without sisterhood being the basic foundation or support base, the realization of the necessary impact of humanitarian interventions within the communities, of which their supervisory role is also imperative would remain a challenging quest: “This will ensure we, Igbo women, will maximise the gains of developmental efforts in Igbo communities across the country.”
Convener of the Assembly, Chinwendu Okoroigwe, charged the attendees from all parts of Igboland and the Diaspora not to relent in supporting these community relief efforts and interventions.
Okoroigwe noted that the support had become necessary because the living conditions of the people in the homeland had continued to deteriorate, with women and children feeling the greatest impact.
She, however, pledged to sustain the vision of the organisation in bringing the much-needed succour and relief by its humanitarian programmes in disadvantaged communities in the South-East.
She said the group was a dynamic organization with membership cutting across illustrious daughters of Igboland both in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
The convener stated that the movement was committed, through various activities, in bringing succour and relief to the less privileged within communities in Igboland: “This is done through water provision projects, healthcare interventions, poverty alleviation, scholarships, prison outreaches, advocacy and women’s rights, women economic empowerment through skill acquisition initiatives and other initiatives addressing the specific needs and challenges faced by Igbo women both within Nigeria and the Diaspora.”
The Igbo women’s assembly is convened annually in adherence to the age-old tradition of the yearly ‘August Meetings’ in Igbo villages and communities as well as the Diaspora.
Organisers bestowed the hallmark posthumous award for ‘True Igbo spirit, excellence and sacrifice’ on the Eze Igbo Gburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, among other activities.