June 23, Ludhiana: The Loomba Foundation marked International Widows Day at an event which was held in Ludhiana. The Foundation, which works to empower disadvantaged widows around the world, commemorated widows, by inviting them to talk about their struggles and how the skills training provided by the Loomba Foundation impacted their lives.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, had officially recognized International Widows Day on 23rd June 2010 at the 65th UN General Assembly.
“International Widows Day is a very special day for us. Every year we try to mark this day as a promise to all the widows we support, that we will continuously strive to give them social standing and perish the taboos of widowhood. We are currently empowering over 15,000 impoverished widows and educating thousands of children of poor widows in India. This event will give us a chance to honor the strength of these widows and give them a platform to speak about how their lives have changed after receiving skills training.” said Lord Loomba, Founder & Chairman Trustee of The Loomba Foundation, in a statement.
As per the World Widow’s report which was launched at the United Nations CWS 60 Parallel event in New York on 17th March earlier this year, there are 259 million widows and 584 million dependent children around the world. Many of these widows live in poverty, facing gender discrimination and victim to taboos such as witchcraft or being unclean.
The past year had been significant for Loomba Foundation’s work in India, especially since the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi recently launched The Loomba Foundation’s project in Varanasi, by distributing sewing machines to empower over 5000 widows.
About The Loomba Foundation
The Loomba Foundation has championed the cause of widows since it was first established by Lord and Lady Loomba in 1997 with a pledge to educate at least 100 children of poor widows in each of India’s 29 states within a decade – a target it achieved in seven years. In 2005 the Foundation launched International Widows Day to be held as a global day of action on 23 June each year, and mounted a campaign which resulted in the unanimous adoption of International Widows Day by the United Nations General Assembly five years later. Today, The Loomba Foundation is a UN ECOSOC-accredited NGO specialising in this issue. Lord Loomba, Founder and Chairman Trustee of The Loomba Foundation and Vice-Chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, told the meeting that The Loomba Foundation will continue its research and advocacy work to bring about the cultural change that is needed to eradicate this issue.