The Global Fund for Widows is a nonprofit organization dedicated helping widows and female heads of households overcome poverty through skills-based training, job creation, and micro-finance.
Ultimately, our goal is to help widows achieve financial stability, self-sufficiency, and importantly, become a role model within her family and community.
A world where widows can thrive - exercise their rights, build financial stability and lead their families and communities.
At least 129 million of the world’s widows suffer social and economic deprivation. Upon being widowed, women may find themselves in debt and poverty, are forced to end their children’s education, have their property seized and may face “cleansing” practices.
This is what Heather Ibrahim-Leathers, GFW’s Founder, learned after the death of her grandmother Euginie Awadalla in 2008. Heather found out that upon the loss of her husband, Ms. Awadalla was plunged into poverty after her brothers-in-law seized her family’s assets. With four young children she lost the security of middle-class life in Alexandria, Egypt. She was forced to sell what little remained and to select only one of her children to educate.
After hearing this, Heather’s learned through extensive research that generations later widows were still subject to this abuse. This impelled her to found GFW. We are dedicated to reminding the world that widows have dignity and agency, and face other harmful traditional practices.
GFW works with widows living in poverty in low and middle-income countries, challenging poverty and violence using a two-pronged approach.
We support individual widows using entrepreneurship, access to capital and legal education in a micro-banking model called Widows Savings and Loans Associations (WISALA) and with a micro-finance facility in Egypt called the Amal project.
We work with governments and multilateral institutions to create and strengthen legal and policy protection for widows. With them, we formulate legal proposals and revise frameworks that harm widows. We also bring together key stakeholders in strategic dialogue and build awareness of widows' rights in high-level forums to ensure these rights are included in national and global policies.
