Let me tell you a story:
On February 24, 2012, my husband died of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Through chemo and radiation, God enabled him to live for nine months. I didn’t know who to contact and the meetups that I visited didn’t - no, couldn’t - understand my needs. The only thing that I could think of was to use my creativity and so in 2014, I created Strong Black Women Grieve and Strong Black Men Grieve Facebook pages. It was an outlet for me. It was a bit popular to many so much so that it caught the eye of a major organization whose focus was the widowed woman. After a great call and the mentioning of the need for women of color, we did not move forward. I was disappointed but didn’t give up. And then God placed in my spirit a vision of widows of color coming together to support one another. This happened the following year and Black Women Widows Empowered was birthed through meetups in Charlotte and Baltimore.
Following the creation of meetups, the online group was formed. It started with just a few ladies here in the states and then word got out worldwide, with Nigerian and Kenyan widows also becoming our supporters. We currently have a total of roughly 1K online worldwide supporters combined from the United States, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Canada and the United Kingdom. We partnered with widows in Kenya and Nigeria and even a major widow’s organization in Washington, D.C. - our name was getting out there. I decided to hold an event in Baltimore and the following year two events in Charlotte with the specific task of continuing our network.
Currently, we’ve held two major podcasts with an Emmy-Award winning talk-show host and Psychotherapist whose mental health expertise was highly favored on a few major cable television shows including the R. Kelly docu-series, “Surviving R. Kelly.”
We’ve disbursed several hundred dollars of funds to needy widows, established BWWE Ambassadors in Mobile, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; New York City and most recently, Nigeria.
In addition, we also created a one-of-kind survey catered to the Black woman widow just for our group members which consists of 50 deep and impactful questions. The survey is intended to be used for citation purposes, internal or external to the group. You get to see how we’re doing, what we’ve been through, and what are needs are. I’d also like to add that we also created a mentorship program of pairing new widows with seasoned widows. Our first session initiated during the Summer and anticipate our second session to be even greater.
And lastly, we’ve also published an item or two 🙂. We’ve created our first magazine, Today's Widowed Woman of Color Magazine, published a digital book, Loss of a Spouse: 40 Real-Life Tips for the Newly Widowed, as well as a book in print, Widowed But Not Wounded Book, and we’ve also created a hashtag/movement #BlackWidowMagic (https://www.blackwomenwidowsempowered.com/black-widow-magic). So, if you need to know more, well, jump on over to Black Widow Women Empowered, a Network that was established to reach and empower MILLIONS of widows, God willing.
Can you help?
Please?
Allow the story to continue...
*It’s never too late to donate.
*It’s never too late to help a cause dedicated to empowering widows through an amazing network.
Will you help us?
Your amount, no matter the total, is appreciated.
We desire to reach our goal by the end of the year. Will we make it? Any amount we raise will be utilized to help further our network. We’re also getting ready for our mini documentary. If you can help us reach $20,020 by 12/31/2020 - a reach that many will say is impossible yet others will cheerfully say is attainable - you’re our kinda people!
So please, share with your employer, your favorite business or someone you feel wouldn’t mind giving.
Any amount is a great amount.
Kindly,
Sabra
Creator. Visionary. Widow.
Fiscally Sponsored by The Carla Rose Foundation, Inc.
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