By Carolyn Moor, President, Founder and Development Director of Modern Widows Club (WPD Partner in the USA).

In order for widows to experience peace and democracy, we must first have a willingness to understand widows by being courageous enough to see their truths and realities vs. their myths and the lies. Currently widowed women are not seen as ‘vulnerable’ or as ‘survivors’ in most democratic systems, a sin of omission, and that needs to change. The word democracy comes from the Greek words “demos”, meaning people, and “kratos” meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as the “power of the people”. Yet, widowed women worldwide have gone historically and chronically unseen, unsupported and unmeasured in their amenable rights to be included in the power of the people.

Being powerless also means being voiceless. A drastic moral shift needs to happen in the way of first believing widows’ voices when they say they need support, how they need support and when they need support from stakeholders, politicians, legislators, policy makers and decision-makers worldwide. Such as the uprising of the domestic violence and human trafficking movements in motion today, the same needs to happen for the widowhood movement because they are linked. The time has come for a revolution and revival to start believing widows when they speak truth. Denying them this right is to deny the oneness we all share.

These widowed women are our vital and sacred grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces around the world who have given much love in support of others, a formidable force of love that deserves a magnanimous return of loving support by way of active response to their acute needs, both in the short and long term. Their cries and asks is our opportunity to step fully into our own humanity and become the solution makers towards a long overdue and imperative crisis. 

Widowed women experience more gender inequality than any other demographic of women. No fault of their own. Everyone needs awareness and education in this area, even women themselves. Technology and innovation have proven to help in the pandemic and past crises around the world, yet still, widows’ needs were excluded in those conversations – not believed enough to matter.

The most innovative action the United Nations could take is to intensely look at the evidence presented by the agency organizations that are the collective voices for these voiceless women. They are messengers of hope, healing and growth resulting in solutions that would change the course of history for current and future widows by revolutionizing their future trajectory.

At Modern Widows Club, we are committed to creating a new generation of widow mentors, leaders and advocates that will only increase and ensure peace and democracy requests keep coming for decades to centuries by never giving up on challenging old stereotypes and ideas about what it means to be a widow.

I dream of a future where widows experience health equality, financial empowerment and an all-hands-on-deck approach from our governing institutions. I dream community leaders understand the positive impact and return on investments in building stronger individuals such as widows and its direct link towards building stronger families and communities. I challenge everyone to ask, “Is my city, state and country a place where widows flourish and experience the health equity that leads to a purpose filled future?” and “How can I do my part to advocate for widows?”

Imagining that kind of widow experience and strategically working backwards to plan on overcoming the foreseeable challenges to overcome is the only way forward. Repeating what has not worked in the past is solid enough proof that including new technology and innovation is the only way forward for widows to find the necessary and audacious peace they so deserve. Only then will we see and know the full range of impactful change that must occur in order to ensure every widow experiences her full human rights privileges and potential.

Website: modernwidowsclub.org
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