The United Nations (UN) has established the International Widows’ Day in 2011 to raise awareness on the need of suport for women who lost their life partner and with their children.
The absence of the life partner exposes both women and their children to psychological and economical risk: the family is deprived of an income source and also by the father’s moral suppport and structuring influence on the children.
The UN estimates there are 258 million widows in the world, of which one tenth are at the limit of survival. Widows are mostly exposed to the risks of poverty, violence, lack of acces to health services, abuse and conflicts.
According to Agerpres news agency, over 40,000 Romanian women become widows every year, over 5,000 of them caring for minor children.
The International Widows’ Day was first marked in Romania in 2015 by the association Există viață după doliu! (“There Is Life After Grieving!”) which offers counselling, social meetings and psychotherapy for widows and widowers as well as for their children.
Photo credit: Freepik.com
