By Naomi Fatima Momodu & Deborah Nuhu
In the just concluded Mother’s Day celebration, it was all glitz and glamour as usual. Mothers receiving all the love and appreciation from their loved ones.
It is no doubt that women are being celebrated differently in every part of the world. While some traditions demand a festival with women dressed in a certain way, others will enjoy a stay home to give mothers a treat.
However, history tells us mother’s day began in the early 1900s as a way to honor the sacrifices mothers made for their children.
Another precursor to Mother’s day came from the abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe, who in 1870 wrote the “Mother’s day Proclamation”, a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace.
Statistics tell us that more phone calls are made on mother’s day than any other day in the year. This goes a long way to show the appreciation and vital roles of mothers in the society and world at large.
A lot of people attribute their success and achievement to their parents, especially mothers, simply put ‘I would never have made it this far without her’.
In this light, I will tell a short story of a young mother with two sons that we encountered recently, who after the demise of the husband, had to raise them all by herself. To do this, she encountered so many challenges, worked several jobs and literally gave all of herself to that course.
Today, she is the proud mother of a renowned Artist and an Engineer. Her tenacity was to give her all to her children towards a better life than she had paid off eventually. Little wonder she is fulfilled today.
Generally, mothers and motherhood are very important to the nation and societal development, considering the position of a mother in a family.
They are the ones that nurture, care, empathize and ensure development of the children to become responsible individuals in the society.
In Nigeria today, we see a subtle display of jealousy from men saying ‘every Sunday has officially become a mothering Sunday’ communicated via banters and skits.
Regardless of these sayings of men, we are more concerned with what affects the lives of women and reaching to help them achieve even more by supporting them in every way we can.
Pre-historic women accomplished great feats, defeated giants they were faced with, and were a force to reckon with.
Hence, the need to continue to support the women, because the support and empowerment of the woman is enablement for the family and the society at large.
At WODDI, we believe women have a lot of role to play in societal development, and we have been supporting them for over 15 years. WODDI has provided 205 (2-bedroom) fully furnished bungalows to indigent widows and empowered 2,750 women and girl child in skill acquisition empowerment initiatives across 3 states in Nigeria and she is still doing more.
Naomi & Deborah contributed this piece from WODDI office in Abuja.
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