04 Feb The Place of FoW
Psychological support
Everyone has a need to belong socially. TRI works with widows to support them to have a sense of identity and social acceptance. Through our support in form of group therapy, the widows we work with have formed a support group. The basic elements of the program are to provide psychological healing to help them deal with loss and grief, through individual and group therapy for both the widows and their children.
Psychosocial Support
This is coupled with widow’s support group meetings where they receive group psychosocial education on coping with loss. Members are trained in areas such as: loss and grief, trauma debriefing, depression, stress management, parenting especially teenagers, forgiveness, and spirituality. At the end of the program members receive certificates and are further equipped to replicate the same to other beneficiaries. The goal is to transform the widows into emotionally apt people who find their purpose again as they serve others who are going through what they have been helped to come out of.
Economic Empowerment
The program also integrates a component of financial empowerment activities that is aimed at helping widows to generate resources that help them support themselves and their children. Such income generating programmes are diversified into the interests of the widows, and often include improved farming methods for both crop and animal husbandry, and market access for agri-products. In tandem with TRI’s vision of a healthy person a healthy nation, the widow’s program is now venturing into widows’ group activities. The first activity is the greenhouse farming. This project is aimed at rallying the members together for common purposes. These common purposes include; socializing, trainings on best practices, developing a sense of belonging and significance and economic empowerment for them and their children.
Legal Assistance
The widow’s program further empowers widows with legal education and access to justice, to help them claim their property. Kenya’s legal framework provided in the Succession Act and other relevant statues and policies protects Kenyan women from harmful and exploitative traditional practices that often are invoked by extended relatives of the deceased husband in an attempt to dis-inherit the widow. However, most widows find it difficult and very draining to follow up because of the financial implications and also ignorance. TRI assists the widows by providing legal advice and the future projection is to help them form a body that can take care of their various needs.
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