The members of the Qina Mfelokazi Widows’ Organisation have partnered with the students from the Qingqingcwele Eastern Cape School of Theology with the aim of bringing hope and support to other widows in their communities and among congregations.
They hosted two events. The first commemorated widows’ day at St John’s Hall in Mthatha recently, which was accompanied by a peaceful walk to Freedom Square in Mthatha, where they preached the word of God and prayed for different challenges the world is facing. Then they hosted a gala dinner with the aim of raising funds to assist widows’ children to pay for their registrations at tertiary level.
According to the president and the chaplain of this organisation, Bishop Nomaphelo Nodwengu-Myathaza, they partnered with this school of theology so that they could educate each other about assisting communities, including widows. She said the church ministers could start their own programmes or join the projects that are done in the communities in order to set an example of what should be done.
“Today they are here just to get more about the problems that are facing widows.
“After they heard about them they would go to their circuits and start programmes, like the ones we have in partnership with the members of our organisation,” said Nodwengu-Myathaza.
She added that widows were raising their children alone and were often unemployed, so it was the responsibility of church ministers to support them.
She added that the members of this organisation had ploughing projects and other initiatives, so they wanted these ministers to do the same in their communities and support widows who had already started projects.
“They should also look after widows who are abused in their locations and make sure that they give them support. Some of the widows are abused by their family members to the extent that they are accused of killing their husbands. Even in the societies they are not accepted so the church leaders should play a major role.”
One of the students from Qingqingcwele Eastern Cape School of Theology, Nozuko Makhasi, from African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), said that the church leaders would make sure that they would support widows.
“Our intention, as the church leaders, is to make sure that they don’t feel isolated, and we are always there in order to make sure that they don’t feel lonely. We support the programmes they are doing because our government is saying vuk’uzenzele. We appeal to other congregations to love them because we are their pillars,” said Makhasi.
