By Bose
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Lagos, July 3, 2025 The Healing Heart Foundation, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), has empowered and celebrated the widows through a cooking competition aimed to enhance their skill acquisitions.
Mrs Sophy Mbanisi, the President of the Foundation made this known at a programme organised by the Foundation in partnership with Ajinomoto Foods Nigeria Ltd. and Addmie Foods Company, to commemorate the 2025 International Widows Day (IWD) in Lagos.
Mbanisi said the programme which was the 3rd Edition of its kind, aimed to encourage and inspire the widows to enhance their skills and achieve more in life, to be able to cater for their families despite the demise of their husbands.
She explained that the Foundation usually use the cooking competition to mark the “International Widows’ Day” celebrated annually on June 23rd.
She added that the programme was shifted toward end of the month to enable the Foundation combine the celebration with its monthly meeting.
According to her, many of the widows are good cooks who can effectively manage/run restaurant businesses if empowered.
She said, “The Widows’ Cooking Competition has become an annual event , as the first edition was held two years ago. And since its inception in 2023, significant impacts has been recorded, as many widows who participated have gained more confidence about their cooking abilities through exercise.
“So, the whole idea is to equip the widows to be gainfully engaged, regain their confidence about their capabilities and make them understand that there are many petty business opportunities they can actually leverage to get income and be financially independent.
“For this year’s edition, we are able to just select five widows from the different zones of the Foundation to participate in the competition, while thousands of other widows were audience watching competition as it unfolds”.
The Foundation’s President explained that the five widows who actually participated would go home with different cash prizes at the end of the cooking competition.
According to her, Mrs Florence Essien, Mrs Abimbola Mufutal and Mrs Rebecca Adebisi emerged the 1st prize, 2nd prize and 3rd prize winners respectively in the 3rd edition of the 2025 Widows’ Cooking Competition.
“There is joy in winning. As some have emerged winners, it will motivate others to participate next time. Beside cooking, there are series of other things/businesses that the widows can be doing to be fending for their families.
“Competition is the spice of life; that your husband is dead does not mean the end of life for you; you can inspire, work hard and be great in life, while earning good money.
“Erase the mentality that you can easily be receiving from others. And I strongly believe that the exercise will actually spur other widows who 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 said.
Speaking, the First Prize Winner, Mrs Florence Essien appreciated the Foundation and the sponsors of the programme for organising the exercise and providing a platform that enabled her upgrade her cooking skills.
Essien expressed optimism that the cash prize and the knowledge she acquired from the programme would go a long way to help her family and boost her business outfit.
