From Right: Felix King having a hand shake with Speaker Edo state house of Assembly Hon. Justin Okonoboh and his wife, Mrs. Betty Okonoboh looking on during Widows Empowerment by the Felix King's Foundation in collaboration with Edo State House of Assembly

In order to push Abolish Widows Maltreatment campaign beyond advocacy, Felix King Foundation (FKF) has identified agriculture as a tool to genuinely empower vulnerable widows, hence, the Widows in farming – WIFARM AID programme planned launch in June 2017.

It was great scientist, Albert Einstein who said that “Men cannot solve problems created by men- no matter how much they believe they can.”

Riding on this, Felix King is inclined to believe that relieving widows of the burdens the society placed on them requires the methodical empowerment of women and widows by not giving handouts but by placing in their hands, skills and tools for economic independence.

Announcing the programme in Benin City recently, King said this tool is in agriculture, especially for the widows in the most vulnerable social bracket.

According to him, “We are aware of the huge potential that Nigeria has in Agriculture and the roles women have played at family unit levels towards ensuring food sufficiency.

At the subsistence level, farming has enabled many families survive. And semi-mechanized levels, it has, and still, helping a significant number break the vicious poverty to education and then prosperity.

“Our new initiative is therefore to leverage and strengthen this already existing model by instituting Widows in Farming Aid programme (WIFARM_AID) and support it as a platform that will enable widows easily gain access to tools and facilities for commercial Agriculture businesses,” King said.

WIFARM – AID, which shall be launched shortly, will become a platform to achieve the following: encourage the widows to form groups and clusters for enhanced economy of scale, provide fertilizers, improved crop varieties and seedlings and farming tools, manual and mechanized.

Other objectives of the programme include enabling irrigation facilities for farms and groups in close cluster and soft grant for labour engagement.

Unveiling yet another major initiative, King mentioned that Coin of Liberty is a platform with which the campaign will be driven.

Offering explanation on the coin, the founder of Felix King Foundation said that “the coin of liberty is a coin we are using to drive sensitization and awareness creation towards the total abolition of widows maltreatment in our society.”

This campaign, according to him, will be a holistic community outreach campaign to ensure that the message reaches everyone while also motivating them to take positive action by changing their attitudes and dispositions towards widows.

He mentioned that the campaigned has commenced on the digital space.

He however, urged the speaker and other legistors to begin to take positive action through proclamations and commitments as representative of government.

Unveiling the Coin, the Speaker Edo House of Assembly Dr. Justin Okonoboh commended the foundation for its effort towards total abolition of widows’ maltreatment, not only in Edo state but also in Nigeria.

He pledge to use all the available legislative instrument to ensure that the menace is tackled headlong in Edo and urged his colleagues in other states to begin to set machinery in motion to end the scourge in our communities.

Apart from the coin being the crest in which the campaign with ride on, it is also a symbol carefully designed to be handover to dignitaries in government, business, traditional, entertainment and media as ambassadors.