{"id":7655,"date":"2015-07-21T03:55:23","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T03:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/?p=7655"},"modified":"2016-11-28T16:30:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T16:30:49","slug":"ghana-widows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/ghana-widows","title":{"rendered":"A Woman Is Saving Ghana\u2019s Widows From Enduring Humiliation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a6b39195b99473d6c9dd698db2668010\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:2px 0 2px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<center>\r\n\r\n<script type='text\/javascript'>\r\nfunction ShorterThan(widthMax) {\r\n                if (screen.width < widthMax) {return true;}  \r\n                else {return false}\r\n    }\r\nvar LimitWidth = 728\r\nvar MobileZoneID = 348996\r\nvar DesktopZoneID = 348995   \r\n<!--\/\/<![CDATA[\r\n   document.MAX_ct0 ='';\r\n   var m3_u = (location.protocol=='https:'?'https:\/\/cas.criteo.com\/delivery\/ajs.php?':'https:\/\/cas.criteo.com\/delivery\/ajs.php?');\r\n   var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999);\r\n   document.write (\"<scr\"+\"ipt type='text\/javascript' src='\"+m3_u);\r\n   if (ShorterThan(LimitWidth)) {document.write (\"zoneid=\"+MobileZoneID);} else {document.write (\"zoneid=\"+DesktopZoneID);}\r\n   document.write(\"&nodis=1\");\r\n   document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r);\r\n   if (document.MAX_used != ',') document.write (\"&exclude=\" + document.MAX_used);\r\n   document.write (document.charset ? '&charset='+document.charset : (document.characterSet ? '&charset='+document.characterSet : ''));\r\n   document.write (\"&loc=\" + escape(window.location));\r\n   if (document.referrer) document.write (\"&referer=\" + escape(document.referrer));\r\n   if (document.context) document.write (\"&context=\" + escape(document.context));\r\n   if ((typeof(document.MAX_ct0) != 'undefined') && (document.MAX_ct0.substring(0,4) == 'http')) {\r\n       document.write (\"&ct0=\" + escape(document.MAX_ct0));\r\n   }\r\n   if (document.mmm_fo) document.write (\"&mmm_fo=1\");\r\n   document.write (\"'><\/scr\"+\"ipt>\");\r\n\/\/]]>--><\/script>\r\n<\/center>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you have not already, meet Joyce Akumaa Dongotey-Padi. She is better known as Mama Zimbi and she is one of Ghana\u2019s leading television and radio hosts. She deals with a lot of women\u2019s rights and issues on her shows. <i>\u201cOn the radio and TV I was dealing a lot with women\u2019s issues, health, the family. Every time the show ended, we had lots of women coming in to tell us how they were being mistreated by their husbands.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0But now, she has started a revolution in Ghana by battling a longstanding stigma against widows.<\/p>\n<h2>Standing up for Ghana\u2019s widows<\/h2>\n<p>Women who are widowed in the nation are often blamed for their husbands deaths. Many are kicked out of their homes, abandoned by their families, and\/or forced to go through embarrassing rituals. These rituals are intended to make sure their husband make it to the afterlife, and can include anything from sleeping with their dead husband\u2019s corpse and drinking a soup made of his fingernails and hair. Mama Zimbi has been fighting these traditions through her charity &#8211; the Mama Zimbi Foundation. Her charity has aided and empowered thousands of Ghanaian widows who have been abandoned by their families.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0<i>\u201cThere was an increasing number whose husbands were dead, and they didn\u2019t know what to do,\u201d <\/i>she says. <i>\u201cIt was becoming a more regular question, so I decided to set up an organisation to deal with these issues.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7660\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7660\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7660\" src=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/0379382624_1_2048x1536_to.jpg\" alt=\"source\" width=\"700\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/0379382624_1_2048x1536_to.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/0379382624_1_2048x1536_to-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/0379382624_1_2048x1536_to-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/0379382624_1_2048x1536_to-85x64.jpg 85w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7660\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/trove\/image\/fetch\/c_scale,w_620\/c_crop,g_faces,h_1240,w_620\/https:\/\/d18cih6mmf0fx0.cloudfront.net\/20150720\/0379382624_1_2048x1536_to.jpg\">source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>{adinserter CNP5}<\/p>\n<h2>An important foundation<\/h2>\n<p>The charity helps the women put their lives back together through money, education and business. Mama Zimbi also gives women hope of a better future. But she is not in the business of giving handouts. \u00a0The women must work hard to make their businesses work. Mama Zimbi has even kicked women off projects for being too lazy and only works with those who show promise in paying off their loans. One of her projects is financing a mango farm that is run by widows from the nearby village ofAkuni. The women work on the farm; through growing and selling the mangos, they have turned it into a profitable business. Another of her projects is located inside a church building, where sixteen widows make charcoal and sell it at markets. To help fund the charity, Mama Zimbi received $20,000 from a World Innovation Summit for Education award in 2009. Other than that, she has not received much outside help other than some tools. Most of the financing comes from Mama Zimbi\u2019s own pocket.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7659\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7659\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7659\" src=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner7.jpg\" alt=\"source\" width=\"700\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner7.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner7-600x236.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner7-85x33.jpg 85w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mamazimbi.org\/img\/carousel\/banner7.jpg\">source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>A local hero<\/h2>\n<p>The women are extremely grateful to Mama Zimbi. One woman, Ghana Malofah, was thrown out of her house when her husband died. They had been married for ten years. Now Malofah, age 52, works in one of Mama Zimbi\u2019s businesses, making clay pots and bowls. \u00a0<i>\u201cWhen he died, I lost everything. I arrived in the village and learnt this work. When I heard Mama Zimbi\u2019s radio programme, I recruited other women and we set up this business,\u201d <\/i>she says. \u00a0Mama Zimbi plans to help 8,000 widows from her own money. \u00a0So far, she has helped 2,000 women.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7658\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7658\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner1.jpg\" alt=\"source\" width=\"700\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner1-600x236.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/banner1-85x33.jpg 85w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mamazimbi.org\/img\/carousel\/banner1.jpg\">source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/being-female-in-nigeria\">SEE ALSO: Nigerian Women Share The Discrimination They Face Every Day.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have not already, meet Joyce Akumaa Dongotey-Padi. She is better known as Mama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,110],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Woman Is Saving Ghana\u2019s Widows From Enduring Humiliation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"She deals with a lot of women\u2019s rights and issues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.afrizap.com\/en\/ghana-widows\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Woman Is Saving Ghana\u2019s Widows From Enduring Humiliation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"She deals 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