Widows' Microenterprise Opportunities & Skills Training
Widows Comfort provides services & opportunities to poor widows in Jos, Nigeria, enabling them to advance economically & become self-sustaining. We help women begin small businesses (microenterprises) and provide business education to help them succeed. 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
Section 1: About You
First Name
Comfort and Bamidele
Last Name
Padonu
Country
Nigeria, PL
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
Organization Name
Widows Comfort Outreach Ministry
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+2348035865674
Organization Address
Physical location: Race Course Layout, Bauchi Road, Jos. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 10633, UniJos, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
Organization Country
Nigeria, PL
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Your idea
Name Your Project
Widows' Microenterprise Opportunities & Skills Training
Describe Your Idea
Widows Comfort provides services & opportunities to poor widows in Jos, Nigeria, enabling them to advance economically & become self-sustaining. We help women begin small businesses (microenterprises) and provide business education to help them succeed. We also provide skills training in a number of different industries, so women can learn a trade that fits their innate talents and temperamant.
Country your work focuses on
Nigeria, PL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Our program provides a variety of different 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. We meet women "where they are," both in the sense of physical location, but also emotionally and spiritually. Our program is not a "one size fits all." We teach some women 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 each case, 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.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
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.
The organization builds opportunities through a variety of programs, including:
1. Farming groups: 15-20 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 aminal scientist, and the other a food scientist.)
3. Trade shool: 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.
Once students graduate and leave the program, WC follows up with regular visits, providing ongoing support, education and a caring community to the women.
At our current capacity, we are able to serve over 500 women annually. A typical yearly breakdown by program:
Farming: 15 groups of 20 women/group: 300
Poultry/egg sales: 50 for 6 months x 2: 100
Trade school: 80
Total: 520
We are in the proces of building a compound to house our trade shool so that we can reach an even greater number of women. We know of approximately 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.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
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, economic, and spiritual 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.
Without the structure of a husband/father for their children, widows in our community are vulnerable, neglected, and often marginalized and without the basic needs for daily living. Widows Comfort Outreach, a charitable, community-based, non-profit organization 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, specifically through economic empowerment.
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. What might prevent that success?
The success of our programs can be attributed to our passion, compassion, consistency, dedication and determination. With these traits, we can fulfill our mission of alleviating the poverty and neglect of the widows we serve, allowing & enabling them to achieve a sustainable life of health, meaning and a better future.
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. And as a faith-based ministry, the power of prayer is one of our disciplines.
A limiting factor that could prevent continued success or expansion above is funding. Our programs can only expand, and new programs created, as funding allows.
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.
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
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.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$50 - 100
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
No
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
Approximately 150 words left (1200 characters).
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
No
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation
We have been in partnership one way or the other, either directly or indirectly, with organizations and we have found them to be essential in adding value.
Directly, we have partnered with a microfinance provider called Good Seed Enterprise Development (www.goodseednigeria.org), located in Jos, and with an American humanitarian organization named PEER Servants (www.peerservants.org).
Our partnership with Good Seed has added value to our success especially in our poultry project. A series of business loans from Good Seed allowed us to expand our poultry farming program from 300 to 2000 birds. This allowed us to expand the program almost ten-fold. The expansion of this project alone has added to our success story.
Our partnership with PEER Servants comes through Good Seed’s relationship with this organization, who partners with microfinance agencies around the world. Widows Comfort was awarded the organization’s Lydia Award for exemplary micro-entrepreneurs in 2008. Entries into this competition, which comes with a monetary prize ($2000), are from up to 10 countries around the world.
We have also partnered with some 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 partnerships are, more than ever, critical to the success of an individual organization.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
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.
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.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Widows Comfort Outreach Ministry was born out of personal experience, awareness, conviction, obedience and passion.
Personal experience: Comfort Padonu became fatherless barely two hours after birth, when her father died in a motor accident. In her mother, she experienced firsthand the struggles of a widow for survival.
Awareness: At age 10, seeing fathers of her peers, she wanted to know more about her own father. She realized then how different her life was without a father.
Conviction: 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.”
Passion: 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.”
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
Mrs. Comfort Padonu is the Vision Coordinator of the program for Widows Comfort Outreach Ministry. She has a degree in animal science from the University of Science and Technology, Port-Harcourt, River State, Nigeria. Also a trained pastor, she was born and raised in Nigeria.
She started Widows Comfort in 1992 with forty widows and ten orphans. Today, the program is capable of caring for over 800 widows. She has organized and attended 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.
Mr. Bamidele Padonu, a food scientist by training, is the program director of Widows Comfort. Husband to Comfort, he is also a pastor.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another source, please provide the information
An e-newsletter on grantstation.com
ICRW
Does your project address any of the following barriers to women’s technology access and use?
If you checked any of the boxes above, please explain how.
Approximately 250 words left (2000 characters).
Does your project involve women in one or more of the following stages of the technology lifecycle? Identification of the problem the technology will solve:
Technology training, Technology supply and distribution, Creation and maintenance of market linkages for women's economic outputs.
If you checked any of the boxes above, please explain how you will ensure women’s involvement in each relevant phase of the technology lifecycle.
Technology training: The programs at Widows Comfort are created for the purpose of training on specific technologies. The trade school is an example of this.
Technology supply: The farming program is an example of technology supply and distribution. Modern, up-to-date farming equipment, supplies and methodologies are an integral part of this program.
Market Linkages: The Widows Comfort programs have by their nature created (and will maintain) market linkages for women's economic outputs. The egg distribution program is a good example of this.
If women are a focus of your project, how did this focus evolve?
The project focused on women from its conception..
Which type of women will your project reach directly?
Rural, Peri-urban, Urban, Low income.
In what ways does your project team/leadership involve women?
It is led by a woman/women., It is led by a woman/women from a developing country., The core project team includes women., The core project team includes women from developing countries..
Has your organization formed any new partnerships in response to this challenge? If so, with what type/s of organization/s?
None.
Has your project leadership had prior experience with the following?
Working with women.
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