About Adda Mata Charity Foundation (AMCF)
Adda Mata Charity Foundation (AMCF) is a Nigerian based Non-Governmental and Not-for-profit organization created with the fundamental aim of uplifting underprivileged women and children through empowerment programmes and aids.
Purposed as a give-back scheme by the family of Garba and powered by Velvot Nigeria Limited, a leading Cloud Service Provider (CSP) in Nigeria with reach across Africa, ADDA MATA (Translated from Hausa to mean ELDERLY WIFE) was created in honor of late Hajiya Hadiza Garba who was a respected mother, wife and a figure to many, both to her immediate family and her community.
She was a fierce visionary who wanted to see women around her, living a life of dignity and able to fend for themselves and their children while excelling in their chosen line of interest. Among her many legacies was how she taught and embedded in her children the foundational knowledge and skills needed to develop business acumen via making independent decisions that brought honor to the family, She’s also a politician as she herself excelled in the business she embarked upon and was a pride of the family.
It is this vision of hers to see women, particularly widows live dignified life that gave birth to Adda Mata Charity Foundation.
AMCF - The Foundation
Disturbingly today in Africa and particularly in Nigeria, the society and culture have so much constrained the identity of a woman to her husband or the male figure in the house. As such, when there is a sudden occurrence that results in the demise of this male figure, we find on many occasions that the woman is left with no identity; and instead is exposed and subjected to a life of hopelessness, vulnerability, victimization, poverty and sickness, etc. simply because all that the woman was or is, had been limited to what her husband, father or the male figure in the house was.
A 2015 World Widows report released by the Loomba Foundation says that there are over 258 million widows across the world, and 3.5 million of that number are in Nigeria. Across the different cultures in Nigeria, widows are given very little to no attention after the death of their husbands and often times are denied any kind of benefit accrued to them from their late husband’s properties and even driven from their homes.
Many of these widows are old, jobless and without any reliable source of earning, thereby exposed further to a life of distress.
The increase in women poverty and the constantly deteriorating plight of widows across the country being witnessed today would have caused Adda Mata Charity Foundation to cringe with empathetic discomfort. In fact she just might now be turning on her grave due to this existential problem.
Registered with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission, Adda Mata Charity Foundation was created to provide succor and relief through empowerment programmes targeted at these group of women.
Our programmes will focus on the different areas where underprivileged women, particularly elderly widows are affected the most; areas such as in healthcare, food, shelter, trade, etc. Our programmes will rehabilitate and provide for these women.
Although with a bias to elderly poor widows, Adda Mata Charity Foundation also has a strong passion for the health and general wellbeing of disadvantaged single mothers as well as expectant mothers. All over the world, pregnancy and childbirth comes with their inherent risks to both mothers and their unborn children.
Medical experts are of the opinion that where a mother is not given adequate prenatal and post-natal treatment and care, it can be fatal to both mother and child. In Nigeria, where the healthcare system is on a constant deterioration, poor pregnant women are in fact unable to access these basic health facilities even when they opt for it, and consequently, many of these women are now having to rely on alternative healthcare.
According to the World Health Organisation on Sexual and Reproductive Health, nearly 20% of all maternal deaths across the world happens in Nigeria. In fact between 2005 and 2015, it was estimated that over 600,000 maternal deaths and over 900,000 near miss occurred in Nigeria.
This is alarming, and any responsible individual or group need to be concerned about this unpleasant occurrence.