Foundation to empower widows through cooking competition

The Healing Heart Foundation, an NGO, has announced plans to flag off her maiden edition of cooking competition for the widows in order to enhance their standard of living.

Mrs Sophy Mbanisi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

Mbanisi said that the event would be part of the foundation’s activities to commemorate the 2023 International Widow’s Day (IWD).

She disclosed that the event, which would be held on IWD on June 23, would become an annual event that would run from the zonal level to the state and national levels of the foundation.

Speaking on the objective behind the project, Mbanisi said the programme was aimed at challenging  widows to achieve more in life and be able to fend for their families.

She added that the major objective for the programme was to empower the widows with healthy cooking skills that would enable them sustain living despite the demise of their spouses.

According to her, many of the widows have a lot of hidden dreams that are lying dormant in them.

She said, “Because this is the maiden edition, we are just doing it among the widows that indicated interest in cooking.

 “The fact remains that many of these widows have a lot of hidden dreams and talents that are just lying unexplored in them.

“We want to see how we can revive some of their dreams and aspirations that were abandoned when their husbands died.

“So, we want to bring this healthy cooking competition among them because it will spur many of them that are good cooks and some of them that have the aspiration to run good restaurant or work as cooks in hotels.

“It will equally spur other widows that are out there to know that there are more they can do, even beyond cooking, to sustain living after the demise of their husbands.’’

Mbanisi also that the programme would “spur other widows to participate going forward, having seen how the participated widows would be celebrated in course of the cooking competition’’.

She added that at the end of the competition, winners would either be offered jobs by a reputable hotel or be empowered to open a restaurant.

“The programme will reawaken the dreams in them to kick start their lives again and know that beyond the cooking work, there are other things they can do to succeed and be happy in life.

“There is joy in winning.

“And at the end of the cooking competition, which will be held at the state and national level of the foundation, the winners can be offered a job by any good hotel or be empowered to run a restaurant.

“Competition is spice of life; that your husband is dead is not the end of life,’’ Mbanisi said.

NAN reports that the IWD is marked annually on June 23 to explore some of the issues affecting widows around the world and what must be done to safeguard and advance their rights. (NAN)