For Vivian Ebelechukwu Akaenyi, founder, Katalog Charity Foundation and CEO of Skin Salva Med Spa, her dream has always been to rescue widows from hardship, initiate youth empowerment and campaign against child abuse.
Currently, Akaenyi has embarked on ‘Project Rescue Widows’ whereby she and her team are working assiduously to empower 100 widows from Lagos State, and across the 36 states of the federation.
“We are touring all the geo-political zones of Nigeria to select 100 widows per state, with the primary goal of alleviating poverty. We plan to reach 1,000 widows every year. So, if we’re looking at reaching 1,000 widows every year, we’re looking at combing 10 states in Nigeria, structure their lives and restore what they have lost. These widows, who are mostly homeless, are the primary caregivers for their children,” she said.
Akaenyi’s main goal is to identify the skills the widows possess, the things they were doing before losing their balance, and the things they can start doing right away.
“They can start doing something else if they decide they no longer want to carry on with what they are doing. Therefore, we find a way to equip them with whatever it is. We have profiled the 100 widows who were chosen from among the 20 local governments in Lagos state, however, the main event, which will provide them with startup capital and equipment, is scheduled for September 8,” she noted.
Speaking on the budget for the upcoming widow’s empowerment, Akaenyi stated: “We already did profiling, with a few of them saying they want tailoring machines. Some said they wanted grinding machines, while a few of them are too old to even start a business. In our previous outreach, we rented houses for some widows. We paid two years’ rent for them. Every six months, we give them food, money and cash gifts. We gave them N200,000 each to start a small-scale business. So, it goes beyond buying machines for them.”
Akaenyi started empowering widows in 2016, two years after moving to Lagos, and since then it has been a way of life. “Seeing so many beggars on the streets of Lagos brought me to tears and broke my heart. So, I decided to start an empowerment scheme, initially distributing cooked food, water, Ribena and Indomie to beggars on the street of Lagos.”