Women learn how to sew crossover bags during a course in Kenya Hope’s “Widows’ Might” program.
(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Through its “Widows’ Might” program, Kenya Hope equips widows with job skills to support their families. Most importantly, widows learn about the God who sees and loves them.

“We teach literacy because 98 percent of these widows do not know how to read and write. We start teaching them the Bible chronologically,” Executive Director Joy Mueller says.

Emily’s story

Countless widows worldwide are like Emily* – forced to marry at a young age, then left to fend for themselves and their children. “She was married at about the age of 20, right when [the pandemic began] in January [2020],” Mueller says.

“In June, her husband had a severe asthmatic attack and died. She gave birth to their son in December of 2020.”

Last year, Emily’s in-laws told her to relocate. “In Kenyan culture, his family gets to dictate everything that she does. They said she needed to move to live near her mother-in-law, who needed help,” Mueller says.

“It took us an hour-and-a-half [navigating] down this little trail to get to her ‘house;’ it was [made of] sticks, and rain was coming through,” Mueller continues.

“I was just about in tears when I saw how desperate her housing situation was.”

Through sponsorship, you can help a widow like Emily gain the skills she needs to support herself. Help change a widow’s life through Kenya Hope.

Ask the Lord to help young widows “who desire to remain pure, as the Bible asked them to do, but have all these cultural mandates and pressures” to remarry and have children, Mueller requests.

“Pray for us as an organization that we would know how to address these situations in a loving, biblical, and cultural way. Pray that we can impact maybe rescuing some of these women out of such tragic situations.”

*Pseudonym

In the header image, a widow receives goats through Kenya Hope’s “Widows’ Might” program so she can begin a small herd to support her family. Header and story images courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Kenya Hope’s Joy Mueller says the Bible makes frequent mention of this vulnerable population.

“James 1:27 comes to mind, and that says, ‘Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.’ These women are oppressed and afflicted,” Mueller says.

Women are treated as second-rate citizens in many countries, leaving them with little – if any – education, and few options outside of marriage. Widows fall to an even lower social tier.

“From my experience working with widows in rural Kenya, I would say 98% of them are uneducated and illiterate. The biggest contributor to their poverty is [the] polygamous society, meaning that their husbands can take more than one wife,” Mueller says.

Often when men die, they leave multiple wives and children with no source of income. Plus, another common Kenyan custom gives the husband’s family rights over everything the couple owned, Mueller adds.

Through a two-year training program called “Widow’s Might,” Kenya Hope offers job skills and the hope of Christ. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

“One of our widows, who was more educated, she had a five-bedroom home, and they had two cars. But when her husband died, they (her husband’s family) came in and took everything.”

Widow’s Might

Through a two-year training program called “Widow’s Might,” Kenya Hope offers job skills and the hope of Christ. Upon graduating from the program, women receive tools to start their own small businesses. Sewing is a commonly-chosen trade, as is baking a popular bread known as chapatti.

“When the end of the two years come, we don’t just send them out and say ‘good luck.’ We make sure they are equipped to be able to support their families and earning income,” Mueller says.

Kenya Hope offers agricultural assistance to widows in extremely remote communities. “We give those women five female goats, and that is like a huge influx into their bank account,” Mueller says.

“A female goat can produce up to three kids a year, so their herd is going to multiply quickly. They’re able to take care of their property and their little farm,” she continues.

“Because of those goats, they are sending their kids to school [and] paying school fees.”

Change a widow’s future here through Kenya Hope.

Most importantly, pray. “Pray for those widows around the world. It’s not just in Africa that widows are oppressed like this,” Mueller says.

“Sponsor a widow. It’s just $65 a month for two years. With assurance, you can know that you are empowering and impacting a widow’s life in Kenya.”

Header and story images courtesy of Kenya Hope.

In India, the death of a husband is only the beginning of a widow’s sorrows. “It’s not the norm that widows remarry because their husbands have died, so it’s kind of like, ‘There’s a curse on them! Why else did their husband die?’” said Donna Glass of India Partners.

Meet Elizabeth (Photo Courtesy India Partners)

That curse means women like Elizabeth, whose husband died in an accident more than 25 years ago, are ostracized and mocked. Elizabeth is forced to work a low-paying job as a sweeper to provide for food for her two children. She herself doesn’t often get to eat.

And the superstition surrounding some widows reaches even more extreme heights. “In Indian cultures, if a wife doesn’t conceive, it’s her fault and she’s cursed,” said Glass. “That makes the shunning even worse.”

Being shunned makes these women stand out all the more, and Glass said it’s easy to spot widows in the villages. “There’s obviously great poverty within many of the villages but there’s just this sense of almost hopelessness and despair that you can see on the widows’ faces,” Glass said.

They’re also the ones pleading most adamantly for prayer.

“I think the greatest gift that I’ve ever been able to provide is prayer,” said Glass. “It’s so important to bring back awareness to others about sponsoring widows and what their plight is in India.”

That’s where believers can step in. Glass encourages believers to pray for the forgotten widows of the world, and if you feel called, to sponsor a widow through organizations like India Partners. “When a widow finds out that someone halfway around the world cares enough to provide for her help and her financial need it just lifts her heart,” Glass said.

“We are called by God to look after the child and the orphan and the widow, and so we are fulfilling God’s call to us when we do sponsor a widow.”

The widow you sponsor won’t be the only one touched by your donations. Glass said sponsors can keep constant contact with the woman they support via mail and letters, and some of the stories you’ll receive can be powerful and life-changing.

(Photo courtesy of India Partners)

“Our prayer for the widows is that they would be at peace, that they would know they are loved and cared for,” said Glass. If you want to provide stability and hope to a widow in India, you don’t have to wait. For $35 a month or $420 a year you can send care to one of the 20 women India Partners sponsors.

Even if you don’t give, you can pray and you can share the plight of the invisible. “People can advocate for the widows by sharing the stories, the need for widow sponsorship,” said Glass. “They can raise awareness, and help other people become aware of this problem.”

Psalm 68:5 — Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

(Widows in India often beg near train stations/Photo courtesy Mission India)

In India, women are not often educated, but they are married at an early age. That makes them dependent on their husbands.

If their husband dies, they would depend on charity or live homeless since they lack inheritance on property rights.

Widows are often treated as bad omens.  Lindsay Ackerman, a spokeswoman for Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India, explains,  “In the United States, when we lose a spouse, it’s a heartbreaking, devastating loss, but we’re able to create a life for ourselves, be independent, own a home, have a job, and support our families. In India, that’s just not an option for millions of women who are widows today.”

Regarded as an “untouchable,” a widow’s status couldn’t get much worse. ”She has been raised her entire life to believe she is there to serve her husband, her son, her father-in-law, that she is going to be second.”

Without a husband, she’s shunned and degraded. Without a source of income or job skills, many widows fall prey to slavery and the sex trade.

Who are the widows?

International Widow’s Day raises awareness about their plight; and in doing so, helps ministries provide solutions that both educate and empower widows’.

Ackerman says Mission India also shares a message these women have likely never heard before: ”What we bring to these widows [is] the knowledge that they are loved and cherished by God. That is astonishing news to a widow in India; that there’s a God who loves her and who created her in His image, and cherishes her, and wants good things for her.”

(Photo courtesy Mission India)

Ackerman shares Punia’s story:

Punia’s husband died in an accident at work. The workplace gave her some money to help compensate for the death of her spouse, but her in-laws took it and then kicked her out of the house.

Punia had a young son, then around 7 or 8-years old, and was stunned to find herself trying to figure out how to keep the two of them fed, healthy and safe.

Never having been to school before, she didn’t begin to have the first clue about navigating the world around them.  They resorted to the one thing they could do: begging at the train station.

It was humiliating work, not to mention, dangerous.  One day, Punia’s son was invited to a Children’s Bible Club, a 10-day club sponsored by believers, taught by local Christians.

It’s another touch point, says Ackerman.  “You don’t often think [when you are sponsoring a child in a Children’s Bible Club] about that mom you may be reaching, but you’re also impacting that mom.  For Punia, when her son came home and started talking about Christ and the love of God for both of them, and started talking about these people who were caring about him, she got really curious and wanted to know more. They started attending the church.”

Punia said it was the first time that she felt like anybody had seen HER.

Through the church network, she joined one of Mission India’s Adult Literacy Classes.  Job options open up when widows learn how to read, and most importantly, they’re finally hearing a message that they matter.

Punia completed the class and was eventually able to take care of herself and her son.  It’s not a fairy tale ending, says Ackerman, because it’s real life in a difficult situation.

“They’re still poor, by the world’s standards, and certainly by their own standards, but they know they are rich because they know they are the sons and daughters of Christ.”

The difference: Hope.

What now?

(Photo courtesy Mission India)

$30 enrolls a student in their 52-week Adult Literacy Class.

Mission India provides:

• training for volunteer teachers
• a modest stipend for the teacher
• 3 Bible-based lesson booklets for each student in a regional Indian language
• slates and chalk for students
• a large chalkboard for teachers
• a kerosene lantern

(Photo courtesy Open Doors USA)

Nigeria (MNN) — Today is International Widows Day, and in Nigeria, terrorists have been targeting boys above the age of 13 as well as husbands and fathers.

Since it started its insurgency in 2009, Boko Haram has killed more than 13,000 people, and most have been men.

“Boko Haram specifically targets men because they know that’s going to be the way to try to take down the Christian community–taking down those who are providing for families,” says Emily Fuentes of Open Doors USA.

“Once they take out men in communities, it places a significant toll on the rest of the families.”

Open Doors contacts say attacks on husbands and even on churches are becoming more frequent. An average of five attacks take place each week.

“It’s more than the government can sometimes handle tension-wise, more than they’re prepared to handle, even though it’s been going on several years,” Fuentes explains.

Widows in Nigeria

With the rise of the attacks, wives are being left as widows, and the wage earner of the family is gone. Families are ultimately left struggling for survival. In other words, Boko Haram attacks are strategically planned to tear communities apart and leave women and children to struggle on their own.

Life as a widow in Nigeria is extremely difficult. They’re forced to scramble for any money or support they can get to provide for families. And that support doesn’t always come easily.

Nigerian widows often have no right to claim what their late-husband left behind. In most cases, his family takes everything–that could be a car, house, or any sum of money.

In other cases, such as the one reported by IRIN News, women don’t receive the financial benefits or pensions that they deserve.

“Many of these women find themselves near starving or unable to make ends meet,” Fuentes says.

“Often times their children need to drop out of school to help provide for the family income, or they just can’t afford school. They might have to work instead.”

For Christian widows, the persecution coming from Boko Haram or villagers is even worse. “Because of widow’s and children’s place in society, they’re already discriminated against; and then to have the extra persecution they face as Christians: it’s all double the persecution.”

Widows feel like they’ve been forgotten and abandoned.

How Open Doors is helping

But Open Doors believes this is a chance to give them mercy. The ministry is sharing the love of Jesus with women by providing business training and funds to restart businesses.

“It’s so important for us to stay united in the Body of Christ,” says Fuentes. “When one member suffers, we all suffer. It’s important for us to not forget about them, but to actively be standing with them in their suffering and letting them know we are there for them.”

Everyday people are helping Open Doors by writing letters of encouragement, signing up for prayer alerts, giving to widows, and signing a petition that urges the President to monitor religious persecution in the Middle East.

Come alongside Open Doors to help show widows that they’re loved and not forgotten.

(Photo courtesy India Partners)

India (MNN) — International Widows Day is observed on June 23. It’s a day to be reminded of how Jesus wants these women to be treated: with respect and love.

In some countries, sadly, widows aren’t treated that way. They’re actually seen as a burden, even a curse.

“There are very different cultural aspects in every country, at how widows are treated and how they continue with their lives after they’ve lost their spouse. It’s not the same as the United States,” says Donna Glass of India Partners.

Widows in India

India is one of the countries that see widows as a curse.

“There’s an understanding or belief in India that…it’s because of [widows] that their husbands died–that they killed their husbands.”

For widowers in India, they are allowed to marry many times. Some men marry a month or so after their previous wife passed away.

But it’s not the same for women. “India has a belief that the widows should not remarry. No one would want to marry a widow because she caused the death of her husband,” Glass says.

In fact, only 1 in 100 widows remarry.

Some of the older widows depend on the care of their children, but they have little to offer because the government only provides so much.

Their way of supporting these women is by giving them approximately 300 rupees a month, which is equal to about $5.

“They talk about the poverty level being $1.25 or less a day. $5 a month is much less than $1.25 a day,” Glass says.

As a result, these women become a burden on their sons or daughters. There are hardly any retirement homes to go to.

“The homes that do exist are very costly,” she says. “The free ones stink. Moreover, the sons will not allow the widowed mother to go to a Retirement Home as it is ‘Below their dignity.’”

For young widows, life is even harder. They have young children to feed and no way to provide. They become desperate. “The mothers oftentimes will become day laborers, or they may actually go into prostitution to earn a living,” Glass says.

“They want to provide for their children because they care and love about them. They have no other skills to provide a living for themselves.”

What’s being done?

Churches do pray for these women, but Iris says that’s all they do. “Of course prayer is important…. But [they] would not have visited them even once with a small packet of biscuit!” she says.

That’s why India Partners stepped up to the plate and created a widow’s sponsorship program.

“It’s very unique in Malkangiri…. We are the only people who have a widows sponsorship program,” Glass says. “Our widows sponsorship program, at $35 a month, provides them with an opportunity to purchase more.”

This program is carried out through local churches so widows can learn about Jesus and how He cares for them deeply. Through this sponsorship, widows make deep connections and learn to give their financial burdens to Jesus.

There are millions of widows in India, and India Partners could use your help with this program. Help India Partners as they transform lives of widows and share the good news of Jesus.

Remember International Widows Day June 23!

The Bible tells us to take care of the orphan, the widow, and the alien. It’s easy to see these are some Jesus referred to as “the least of these.”

Gospel for Asia is using this day to focus on widows in South Asia.

According to GFA, there are over 40 million widows in South Asia who struggle every day just to live.

Often, widows are blamed for their husband’s death, so not even family will help out.

It’s International Widows Day.
(Photo courtesy of GFA)

One in four homes in India belong to widows. That’s 25%! They often resort to prostitution or street begging just to provide for their children. Some even gather food from the trash.

Gospel for Asia also reports that for some women, the only way out they can see is suicide.

That’s why GFA is providing free medical checkups, sewing machine and tailoring classes, new clothes, food and water and other basic necessities, and animals that can provide an income.

You can be a part of this not only today, but every day. You can help these women get back their dignity. You can help them wake up in the morning without having to wonder where they’ll get their food for the day.

Your gift and your support could be the open doors pastors in the area need to share the hope of the Gospel.

If you would like to support widows financially, here’s the link.

As you read this, pray for God’s protection over widows of the world. Pray that they would be able to see the hope that’s in Christ Jesus, even in their dire circumstances.

(Photo courtesy Mission India)

India (MNN) — India’s culture is full of heritage and vibrant traditions. But some are beyond humanity.

Tradition holds that when a woman loses their husband, she has three options: throw herself on top of her loved one’s funeral pyre, marry one of her deceased husband’s younger brothers with family permission, or lead a life of self-denial.

“In many ways, becoming a widow is like a social death,” says Lindsay Ackerman with Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India.

“You are literally outcast from your own family, your own community. There are some who would even say looking at a widow is unlucky.”

Many in India’s society see widowhood as a curse from the gods.

“It’s really difficult for a woman to overcome that, because if the gods say that she’s cursed, there’s nothing she can do to change that,” Ackerman says. “All she can do is accept her lower status in the community.”

Regarded as an “untouchable,” a widow’s status couldn’t get much worse. Shunned and degraded, without a source of income or job skills, many widows fall prey to slavery and the sex trade.

A widow named Mahira managed to avoid these evils, but her position in life was a far cry from comfortable. Desperately trying to keep her only son in school, Mahira worked as a street sweeper during the day. She would also wash dishes and mop floors in local homes.

(Image courtesy Mission India)

Like many girls in India, Mahira had never attended school. But she was determined that her son would escape the curse of illiteracy. One day, she chose a path that would alter her life’s direction.

When a Mission India Adult Literacy Class began in her village, Mahira enrolled. She began learning to read and write five nights a week for the next year. Although Mahira learned about Jesus in her literacy booklets and from her teacher, she wasn’t interested in hearing more…until her mother became sick.

Mahira’s mother was taken to a private hospital, but they couldn’t help her. So Mahira began praying to the God she’d heard about in her classes: Jesus Christ. Within two days, Mahira’s mother showed signs of recovery, and in two months, her health improved greatly.

Mahira received Jesus Christ as her Savior, and both she and her son attend church regularly. When Mahira’s in-laws learned of her salvation, they became upset and kicked both Mahira and her son out of the house.

But it’s not causing them to deny Christ. They’re living in a small rented house, and Mahira’s love and faith in Christ continue to grow.

Pray for Mahira as she prepares to be baptized soon.

Mission India’s Adult Literacy Classes are bringing hope to widows throughout India. Job options open up when widows learn how to read, giving them hope for the future. They also learn about the one true God who loves them, giving widows hope for eternity.

(Photo cred Mission India)

Through a gift of $30USD, you can bring hope to a widow in India.

“We just really need to pray overall that as the message of the Gospel spreads, India as a culture will come to value its women,” says Ackerman.

Pray that more widows will come to know the one true God.

“That is the one true hope they have that will change their lives forever,” states Ackerman. “To know that they’re valued, to know that they are cherished will just change their entire perspective on their life.”

Stay up-to-date on Mission India’s projects and field reports by following them on Facebook and Twitter.

You can see them begging in the streets or trekking to the “city of widows.” The widows are noticeable, shrouded in white or grey–the color of death.

The City of Widows is another name for Vrindavan in north India. It is home to 6,000 widows who literally have nowhere else to go. Most of them traveled over 1,000 miles from West Bengal to get there.

It is a pilgrimage without fanfare. Some onlookers turn their faces, since even glancing at a widow is considered gravely bad luck by some.

This Sunday, June 23, is the third annual International Widows’ Day. It was first recognized by the United Nations in 2010 to raise awareness for the injustices against widows.

Out of the world’s 115 million widows, one-third of them live in India. 81 million widows worldwide have suffered abuses like rape, torture, or murder because of social stigmas.

Why is there such a prejudice against widows, especially in India? Danny Punnose with Gospel for Asia explains, “In a lot of these cases, when the husband dies it is considered to be the wife’s fault. It doesn’t matter how the husband died. It’s her fault; she must have done something bad in her past life. The husband is now paying for his wife’s wrongdoing.”

92% of women over the age of 70 in India are widows. But it’s not just the elderly or even the middle aged who are losing their husbands.

“You have girls who get married at 10 or even younger–child marriages,” Punnose states. “So a kid who’s 10 years old gets married, and maybe after five years her husband dies. And now the rest of her life from the time she’s 15 or 16 she has to live as a widow.”

Punnose says when a woman becomes a widow, she has to fend for herself, often through undesirable means. “It’s heartbreaking to see that a lot of these girls have no option except to go into begging or prostitution just to survive on the streets.”

GFA reaches out to this outcast demographic in India with the compassion of the Gospel. “In James it says the true religion God looks for is the care of orphans and widows,” says Punnose. “We’re focusing on these widows and helping them…learn a trade. We’re helping by giving them a sewing machine. Some of the others, we’re giving them animals like pigs or goats [to help them] start a small farm.”

Punnose goes on to share, “We have a lot of women who are working among these ladies in the leprosy colonies or on the streets. They go and clean their homes, or give them special meals to take care of them. If they’re in the leprosy colony, we clean their wounds, take care of them, and teach them how to read and write.”

The Indian Church gets involved, too. “In all the places where churches are planted, the believers themselves take care of these widows and orphans, just like the Bible says. When society rejects them, the Body of Christ receives them.”

One Indian widow in her 70's lost her husband. Her own children threw her into the street. She was barely scraping by when some local Christians found her. They built her a home, and now every day some ladies stop by to check on this widow and love her. Punnose shares what the widow said: “My own children rejected me. But you, you younger sisters, you are like my own children now. You have received me. You have taken me in when everyone else rejected me.”

It's the radical message of the Gospel, and it's transforming lives, Punnose says. “When you don’t experience love for years, and all of a sudden someone shows you kindness, it melts your heart. So we see so many lives changed not just because physically we’re helping them with some needs, but they actually get to experience what it really means to be loved by Christ.”

Pray for widows in India and all around the world, especially in light of International Widows’ Day. Pray for them to feel deeply cherished by God’s people and experience His unconditional love.

Click here to support GFA’s ministry to widows. 100% of donations go straight to the mission field.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 115 million widows living in poverty. Around 81 million have been abused; due to social stigma, widows are much more likely to be targeted for crimes like rape, torture, or murder.

Widow on the side of the road.

In a number of countries, widows are thought to be cursed, involved in witchcraft, or to have somehow caused the death of their husbands. As a result of these superstitious beliefs, millions of widows are being subjected to a life of social exclusion, physical and mental abuse, and degradation.

India holds over a third of the world’s widows, or 40 million women. Some regions are known to hold thousands of widows, places like Vrindavan in north India or the “Village of Tigers” in West Bengal. With an average of 50 male casualties every year from tiger attacks, West Bengal records the highest percentage of India’s 40 million widows.

No matter where they’re located, India’s widows abide by a dismal code of conduct. After losing their husbands, widows live the rest of their lives in a state of perpetual isolation, shame, and visible mourning. They’ll shave their heads, remove all jewelry, never wear color again, and spend their days chanting and begging for a meal.

In India, to even look upon a widow is considered bad luck. But Gospel for Asia (GFA) is breaking the social stigma to share God’s love with this group of outcasts. Through women missionaries and compassion services, GFA is meeting widows’ basic needs.

“God sees the suffering of these widows who have been rejected,” says GFA founder and president KP Yohannan. “He has put it in our hearts to reach out to them with His love and care.”

Sunday is International Widows’ Day, and GFA is going above and beyond their normal range of care for this desperate people group. In the state of Assam, a GFA Women’s Fellowship is bringing piglets to a group of widows to provide them with a source of income. In addition, a special meal will be held for widows, and each woman will be presented with a sari.

In Tamil Nadu, a GFA Women’s Fellowship team plans to make special visits to widows, and special programs for widows will be held in the states of Karnataka, Nagaland, and Uttar Pradesh.

Through donations, local believers are enabled to help widows through the purchase of income-generating necessities like sewing machines and farm animals, as well as much-needed supplies like water filters or winter blankets.

Learn more about GFA’s ministry to widows and how you can help by clicking here.