Creating Hope & Opportunity for Widows through Microfinance & Vocational Training
Widows Comfort provides services & opportunities to poor widows in Jos, Nigeria, enabling them to advance economically & become self-sustaining. With these services, our clients for the first time are able to envision a future with hope and dignity, without pervasive, chronic despair. This is what we want to bring to the world. To do this, we help women begin small businesses (microenterprises) and provide business education to help them succeed. We provide advocacy that is necessary within the context of our culture to empower our clients. We also provide skills training in a number of different industries, so women can learn a trade that fits their innate talents and temperamant.
About You
About You
First Name
Bamidele and Comfort
Last Name
Padonu
Facebook Profile
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Widows Comfort Outreach Ministry
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+2348035865674
Organization Address
Physical location: Race Court Layout, Bauchi Road, Jos. Mailing Address: P. O. Box 10633, UniJos, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
Organization Country
Nigeria
Country where this project is creating social impact
Nigeria
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Creating Hope & Opportunity for Widows through Microfinance & Vocational Training
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Widows Comfort provides services & opportunities to poor widows in Jos, Nigeria, enabling them to advance economically & become self-sustaining. With these services, our clients for the first time are able to envision a future with hope and dignity, without pervasive, chronic despair. This is what we want to bring to the world. To do this, we help women begin small businesses (microenterprises) and provide business education to help them succeed. We provide advocacy that is necessary within the context of our culture to empower our clients. We also provide skills training in a number of different industries, so women can learn a trade that fits their innate talents and temperamant.
What are the primary activities of your project?
The organization builds opportunities through a variety of programs, including:
1. Farming groups: Groups of 25 women are given an initial supply of seed, fertilizer, modern farming equipment and land. The food they raise is theirs to provide for their families and to sell. They are taught modern farming techniques and business education. They are taught concepts such as group purchasing power and retail vs. wholesale pricing.
2. Poultry farming/egg distribution: WC's 2000 "layers" (our very productive chickens!) produce 1200 eggs a day. Widows buy the eggs at a subsidized price for their business--egg sales. At any one time, 10 widows collect 120 eggs daily each for their businesses. Here again, they are taught skills and tools necessary to success in business, such as pricing and selling retail (vs. wholesale) for maximum profit and how to market their goods. Members of the program are involved in poultry husbandry and participate in the direct care of the chickens. (The chickens are fed organic feed compounded onsite by the program directors, one of whom is an animal scientist, and the other a food scientist.)
3. Trade school: We have a number of programs geared towards women of many skillsets and aptitudes. Women can learn fashion design, knitting (on commercial knitting machines), sewing, catering, cloth dyeing, and making household goods such as bar soap, candles and body creams. A program for computer training is planned as soon as a facility to house it is completed. Programs vary in length from 1 to 6 months. Graduates are given relevant business tools such as knitting or sewing machines to start them on their way to self-sufficiency.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Our initiative is innovative on a number of levels.
On a technical level: Our founders, being food and animal scientists, use their knowledge to make their own chicken feed and look after the health of their birds. In this way they do not just cut costs that have to be borne by most poultry farmers, but also compose high quality feeds and ensure the health of their birds. This may explain why they have not been hit by the yearly bird flu epidemic in Nigeria. As agricultural scientists that know the terrain, land, and growing seasons, they have capitalized on this knowledge in order to help their clients create successful farming businesses.
On a sociological level: In this culture, when a woman becomes a widow, relatives often come and take everything. The women can’t own land; her deceased husband's brothers gain rights to all that she had. We advocate with tribal/village leaders on behalf of widows, who otherwise have no rights. This is novel, courageous and necessary.
On an economic level: Our program provides a variety of ways for a woman to break out of the cycle of poverty. We offer many ways for clients to acquire the skill sets needed to achieve their dreams of a life of self-sufficiency, dignity and hope. Our program is not a one size fits all. We teach some to be farmers, others to be egg distributors, and still others to be seamstresses, caterers, fashion designers, or craftswomen. We learn about each woman individually, placing her in the program that will allow her the best opportunity for success. In a cookie-cutter world, this is welcomed innovation
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Our work takes place in Jos, Nigeria. The widows under the care of this ministry are mainly those who became such as a result of the ethno-religious crises that engulfed Plateau state of Nigeria from 2001 to around 2005. We provide the structure necessary to help the women on various levels. We provide baseline business skills, necessary no matter what venture or trade a woman will step out into, and we also provide a community for these women, many of whom have been marginalized and possibly traumatized. In some areas, such as our farming program, the women are placed in a group with other women, forming a support system even within the structure of the larger organization.
In summary, we provide individualized attention and aim to meet the needs of women on a holistic basis. We do this while in the context of providing very practical tools for a the women to advance economically, a feat which in itself can provide pride and emotional healing/well-being.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Widows Comfort Outreach Ministry was born out of personal experience, awareness and conviction. Comfort Padonu became fatherless 2 hours after birth, when her father died in a motor accident. In her mother, she experienced firsthand the struggles of a widow for survival. At age 10, seeing fathers of her peers, she realized then how different her life was without a father. As she grew older, she discovered God’s promises to care for widows and fatherless and wanted to help be a part of this. She describes this as “the defining moment to obey God's requirement from me.”
Comfort says, “It is a joyful exercise for me to assist clients to become comfortable, empowered economically, self-reliant and sustainable. All these are achieved through counseling, physically, spiritually, socially and morally assisting the widows and orphans.” Comfort is the program's visionary. She has a degree in animal science from the University of Science and Technology, River State, Nigeria. She started Widows Comfort in 1992 with 40 widows. Today, the program is capable of caring for over 800 widows. She has organized many seminars on creating awareness on the plight of widows and orphans and is an advocate for supporting and empowering widows through a variety of means.
Pastor Bamidele Padonu, a food scientist by training, is the program director. He works tirelessly on many aspects of program, including meeting with tribal elders to see that widows are provided land and, thus, further opportunity to support themselves and their children.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
Widows Comfort impacts the lives of the women it serves through a number of programs that provide tools that have proven to be life-changing. Women served have gone on to become businesswomen who are able to care for their families, educate their children, inspire their communities, and teach and empower others.
At our current capacity, we are able to serve over 800 women annually. A typical yearly breakdown by program:
Farming: 15 groups of 25 women/group: 375
Poultry/egg sales: 400
Trade school: 80
Total: 855
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
We are in the process of building a compound to house our trade shool so that we can reach an even greater number of women. We know of at least 4 times the number of widows in our community that could benefit from our services and programs and continually seek resources to be able to expand our services.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
A factor that could hinder continued success or expansion is funding. Our programs can only expand, and new programs created, as funding allows. As we seek additional funding, we will pursue success through what we have learned thusfar.
The success of our programs can be attributed to our passion, compassion, consistency, dedication and determination. Our successes also come from our 18 years of experience. We started out small and have grown incrementally, challenging ourselves to grow to reach more in need, but at the same time at a pace that is operationally sustainable. We’ve learned lessons along the way about how to run and manage the organization.
Along with this experience, we also have industry expertise. Our directors have degrees in animal science and food science. Staff has expertise in agriculture. This knowledge is critical for success in the projects we’ve undertaken (agriculture and poultry farming).
In addition, we have a board of directors that sets vision for us and keeps us accountable.
Additional funding for us would mean we could extend our reach via a new training center with greater capacity, or with transportation to visit our clients more often to provide tools, training, services. It would also allow efficiencies of scale, in that we could purchase product in bulk and when supplies are plentiful, rather than in small quantities at a time when prices are high.
Tell us about your partnerships
We continue to partner with Good Seed Enterprise Development, a microfinance institution in Jos, Nigeria. We obtain business loans on a regular basis through Good Seed.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$10,001‐50,000
Explain your selections
In our advocacy to raise fund for our projects, we seek funding from a variety of sources, including friends, family, corporate organizations, and microfinance agencies. Our experience shows that the most constant, reliable source of our funding is a cycle of microfinance loans. After successful, on-time repayment, we are able to secure additional loan cycles, all with affordable interests. This has been our main, consistent, reliable source of income to date.
In addition, we have earned revenue from the sale of the eggs from the poultry project. Because we subsidize these sales to benefit our clients, we don’t receive a great deal of funding this way, but still, these sales account for about 12% of our funding.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
Our main focus is on obtaining funding to complete our vocational training center. Once this is done, we expect the following results as clients come into our programs:
(a) Clients in the farming program will become skilled in modern farm techniques, and they will see an increase the yield of farm produce at harvest.
(b) Clients in all programs will become self-sustaining and self-reliant.
(c) The tools we provide will help reduce poverty and eliminate hunger in our communities.
(d) The economic power of our clients will be enhanced and sustained.
(e) Mothers will be able to afford to send their children to school.
(f) Our clients will become accepted in the community. They will know dignity instead of shame, confidence instead of fear, joy instead of despair.
In the first year, we expect a minimum of 50% success all things being equal. In the second year we expect 75% success, and in the third year of our program, we expect 85-90% success. Assuming there are no communal crisis or natural disasters, the above figures can be achieved.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Underemployment
SECONDARY
Lack of skills/training
TERTIARY
Restrictive cultural norms
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Many widows of Jos are living without hope, unable to support themselves. They often live in fear and even shame, unable to protect their families from the realities of life in what are often unstable political and economic circumstances. They have little or no education and no marketable skills. And even if they did, after living a life where they aren't valued by society, it's difficult to believe in oneself enough to be able to rise above the situation one is in.
Widows in our community are vulnerable, neglected, and often marginalized and without the basic needs for daily living. Widows Comfort creates awareness of their plight, advocates for them, provides community, and at the same time provides them with the tools needed to reduce their multi-layered poverty.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
SECONDARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
TERTIARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
We are currently building a center that will house a vocational training center for our clients. Once this is competed, we will immediately start holding classes to teach vocational skills such as knitting, sewing, weaving, catering, bookkeeping, accounting, computer skills.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
Our partnership with microfinance provider Good Seed Enterprise Development has added value to our success especially in our poultry project. A series of business loans from GSED allowed us to expand our poultry farming program from 300 to 2000 birds. This alone has added to our expansion 10-fold. Our partnership with American NGO PEER Servants, who partners with microfinance agencies around the world, provides us insight into global innovation and up-to-date methodologies. We have also partnered with other NGOs to create awareness on the plight of widows and orphans, and some have added value to our activities such as monitoring and evaluating our performances. Our experiences in current and past partnerships lead us to the conclusion that they are critical to our organization's success.
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 | 53 weeks agoJen Ko said: This is such a wonderful focus for microfinance/entrepreneurship; a group of people whom are very often ignored and forgotten about in ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 54 weeks agoBamidele and Comfort Padonu updated this Competition Entry. |
| 54 weeks agoBamidele and Comfort Padonu updated this Competition Entry. |
| 54 weeks agoBamidele and Comfort Padonu submitted this idea. |
