The widows of Togo celebrated by the FONDAVO of Dr. Birregah and the pleas always reiterated !

Established on December 21, 2010, through resolution A/RES/65/189, by the United Nations General Assembly, in order to draw the attention of the international community to the marginalization of widows and its challenges, the International Day The Widow is celebrated on June 23. The prelude to the 14th commemoration of this international history of widows, the FONDAVO (Widows and Orphans Aid Fund), the main structure for defending the rights of widows and orphans in Togo, and of which Dr. Charles Birregah is president- founder, brought together the members of his organization this Saturday, June 22, in a large ceremony in Lomé.

For the occasion, a conference around the main theme, “Legal situation of the widow in Togo in 2024 : Assessment and prospects”, made it possible to educate the widows of FONDAVO on the main theme but also on “the management tools of Income-generating activities”.

If an assessment of the progress made in the march for the well-being of widows in Togo was made by the Judge at the High Court of Lomé, Alassani Rachide Isso, the second communication developed by the Sociologist and Financier, Edouard Kouma, has helped to give certain basics of IGA management to widows in order to enable them to better manage their businesses and businesses.

For this 14th chapter, in addition to the conference, three other activities are on the FONDAVO agenda, namely a health check-up and awareness raising of widows on recurrent illnesses, by the General Practitioner, Doctor TADEMANA Diniline, a distribution of lives (bag of rice, spaghetti, couscous, can of sardines and tomatoes) and non-food by the Founding President of FONDAVO, Dr Charles Birregah, and finally, the distribution of micro-credits to widows (nearly 200 beneficiaries ) of FONDAVO, always by the first person responsible.
The 14th International Widow’s Day is also an opportunity to send a message to national authorities. Through a 28-point Plea, Dr. Birregah and his protégés expect from the Togolese authorities, among other things, "the abolition of widowhood rites", "the revision of the inheritance order by putting the widow before orphaned children", “putting an end to the practice of levirate (in practice and not theoretically)”, “reducing pension payment procedures”, “establishing a chain of intervention and monitoring of administrative files of widows and protection of widows’ rights", "provision of a line of financing for income-generating activities of widows", "medical assistance to widows", "care of widows and orphans needy”…

A certainty expressed by Dr. Birregah, during this commemoration, is that of the essential care of widows so that they in turn take care of the orphans, and thus avoid in Togo the risks of seeing these children surrender to acts of insecurity including terrorism as observed in certain countries in the sub-region. For the Founding President of FONDAVO, therefore, taking care of this layer so that it benefits the orphans means ensuring a certain security in the country. He therefore made the appeal that we must “help widows so that they take care of orphaned children, so that they become economic actors tomorrow, and not juvenile delinquents”.
In terms of assessment of the situation of widows in Togo, it should be noted that efforts have been made but that more remains to be done for the full and total happiness of widows in Togo. While for the prospects, it is expected that the pleas formulated will meet with an attentive ear and lead to realization. This is the wish of the president of the women of FONDAVO, Clarisse Sonhaye, who did not fail to also launch an appeal to other people of good will to follow in the footsteps of Dr Charles Birregah, by investing in the defense of rights of widows.

Present at this Saturday’s event was a delegation of partners from the United States, whose members did not hesitate to put their hands in their pockets to make this commemoration a major event for the widows of FONDAVO.

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N.B : In picture, the head table during the conference