African Widow and Orphan Support (AWOS) is solely dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of Christian women and children whose husbands and/or fathers were murdered by jihadists in northern Nigeria. Allow me to share the stories of two widows who spoke with me.
Kubili
Kubili Balami was a pastor’s wife. One Saturday evening, around 8:00pm, as she and her husband shared dinner, they heard the sound of gunshots. Knowing the danger, her husband fled to the backyard.
Kubili answered the pounding on the front door. “Where is your husband?” the attackers demanded. Unsatisfied with her answer, they climbed onto the roof, poured kerosene over the house, and set it on fire. From there, the Boko Haram militants spotted her husband in the backyard.
Kubili, through tears, became animated as she spoke to me. The other widows near her wept as well. Composing herself, she continued:
“They interrogated my husband, asking him to recite verses from the Qur’an and answer questions about Islam. Then they shot him in the neck.”
“Kill me too,” she pleaded.
“We do not kill women,” they replied.
She collapsed on his body and fainted. Hours later, she awoke in a torrential downpour.
After her husband’s burial, life became unbearably difficult. She struggled to pay rent, feed her children, and cover school fees.
Kubili expressed deep gratitude to AWOS for their ministry of love and rehabilitation. Trauma therapy helped open her heart to God and also lowered her dangerously high blood pressure. AWOS also provided economic empowerment—she used the support to start a poultry farm, which now helps her pay rent and feed her children. AWOS also paid three years of school fees in advance for each of her five children.
Msel
“There were rumors of a Fulani attack on our village. Two days later, I hoped the danger had passed. But on Sunday, at 6:00am, I heard gunshots. I smelled smoke. Houses were burning.
My husband, already weak from malaria, tried to run with my help. We fled into the bush.
The Fulani chased us through the fields. They shot him, and he fell. His Bible and hymnbook dropped from his small carry bag. One Fulani shot him twice. Another tore his Bible to pieces.
They beat me with a machete, and I fell on his body. They don’t kill women as often—because we can be used to bear Muslim children.”“That day, they killed 27 men and boys from our village. I had seven children. The Fulani burned all our belongings. I was desperate. Hungry. Begging.”
A local Women’s Fellowship brought Msel food and clothing and contacted AWOS’s Beacon of Hope team to assist her and others from the village.
“AWOS worked with the Women’s Fellowship and brought:
- Trauma therapy, which gave me peace—I saw Jesus again.
- A cash grant to start a yam-selling business. I kept my savings in the Fellowship’s mini-bank.
- The means to feed and house my children.
- School fees for my children, paid by AWOS and the Fellowship.”
“Thank you, AWOS, for your love. Thank you, Jesus!”
Thank you, LaGrave Church, for your faithful support of these desperate widows and orphans.
– Marvin W. Heyboer, President, African Widow and Orphan Support