Widows Bucket Project

In many ECWA Women's Fellowships, the number of widows and orphans is increasing. Because of HIV/AIDS, our numbers will continue to grow. In Plateau State alone, there will be an estimated ½ million orphans by the year 2010. How can we cope in our church? How can we help our community? Our Women's Fellowship is already giving so much to so many groups. How can we give more without being discouraged? At ECWA Bishara 2 Hausa, our active membership is about 175 women with about 300 registered members. We currently have 90 widows.

ECWA Bishara 2 Hausa, our active membership is about 175 women with about 300 registered members. We currently have 90 widows. We have started a pilot project. We call it our “widows bucket” project. The main idea is that when a woman is ready to cook the main meal, she measures out what her family would normally eat, then takes out one handful of the main ingredient like rice, beans, or corn and puts it into the “widows bucket”. Her family will not even notice that there is less food prepared because so little is taken out. Each day she can see how her little bit grows until the bucket is almost filled. At the end of the month at our normal meeting time, we all bring what we were able to collect. We empty our buckets and start again for the next month. The widows committee or welfare committee then distributes the grains to the widows and orphans of the church. More is given to those in greatest need. If there is any remainder, it can be used to help another church or be given to EMS Children’s hostel, Gidan Bege, or others.

There are several variations in this model. Some women take out a handful, spoon or cup at each meal. Others have decided to tithe a bucket full out of the half bag of corn that they buy each month. Some go to the market and buy three mudus of a grain. Each woman brings what she can. We encourage the women not to be embarrassed if they can only bring a half bucket. Family sizes vary. A small family might bring a small amount. Those that can bring more are encouraged to give as much as they can.

The churches have divided the areas they serve into zones. Each zone has a woman called a wakiliya who visits the sick, the elderly and pregnant women. We have developed a simple survey for the wakiliyas to use for their zones. It asks for the widow's name, number of children, ages of children, names of children, the type of work the widow does, is she in a rental house or own the house, how do she pay her rent (yearly or monthly), how many children are in school, which children are not in school and why. The wakiliyas are able to do this simple survey to find out how many widows are in their fellowship and assess the needs of the women.

As the bucket project becomes routine, then the other needs of the widows can be met either by special offerings near school fee time or together with the church. Widow’s Week offerings could be used for a scholarship fund or for small business loans. This project will need to continue for the next 10 years. If it becomes a burden for the women, or women feel pressured to bring more than they are able, then the program will not continue.

We would like to encourage American churches to come along side African churches. Two U.S. dollar cover the cost of one bucket and three pieces of AIDS literature for each woman. We are thrilled that the Lord has provided the funds to distribute 25,000 buckets with HIV/AIDS literature this year. We are now considering other churches that would like us to help them. Would your women’s group consider supporting this project? Each church group is about 250 women. You can send donations directly to the Widows Bucket Project (NG#96703) or to Bill and Dorothy Ardill’s “ministry account” at SIM-USA, Box 7900, Charlotte, NC 28241.

Thank you for your generous hearts, your concern for the widows and orphans and your courage and enthusiasm to sacrificially give toward an exciting program to serve "our own".

Dorothy Ardill
SIM Nigeria Missionary

Homepage	Family Overview	Ministry Overview	Gidan Bege	SIM Web page	Email Ardills