October 29, (THEWILL) – Veteran singer, Onyeka Onwenu, has announced that her latest song, Rise Up, was written and produced in partnership with the Rose of Sharon Foundation, aiming to draw attention to the plight of widows in society. The foundation is owned by Folorunsho Alakija, one of the richest black women in the world.
Onwenu, who is a member of RoSF’s board of trustees, also pledged to continue creating socioeconomic empowerment for widows and orphans through several programmes that would ensure greater self-esteem and engender socio-economic integration.
She told Saturday Beats, “In the course of my career, I have been privileged and immensely blessed by God to have worked on several projects – in film, television, music and others. However, not many things can compare to the passion I have for what we are trying to achieve with RoSF.
“The song was produced free of charge as my donation to the foundation. Also, all proceeds from the song will go directly to the cause of the foundation and the good work of providing support for widows. I encourage all well-meaning Nigerians to ‘rise up’ and join us in the fight to mitigate the challenges facing widows and orphans in Nigeria.”
On her part, Alakija expressed happiness that the foundation had empowered several people over the years. She said, “Since the inception of the foundation in 2008, we have impacted the lives of about 6,000 beneficiaries. We are currently ‘servicing’ 4,262 beneficiaries, while 1,738 beneficiaries have been ‘serviced’ and they now have stable businesses, which help them to take care of themselves. The total number of orphans and children of widows’ that have graduated is 343. However, our vision is to increase these numbers significantly.”
Meanwhile, the country manager of the foundation, Dr Ndudi Bowei, stated that Onwenu will perform the song at a widow’s concert scheduled to hold in November.
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