On 26th May, 2005, The Loomba Trust launched International Widows Day, which takes place on 23 June each year. Our President, Cherie Blair QC, made the announcement at the partnership lunch hosted by Lord Dholakia at the House of Lords, which was attended by the Hon’ble Governor of Uttaranchal, His Excellency Shri Sudarshan Agarwal. The UK launch was followed by launches later in the year in India on September 7th and in the USA on October 21st. The US launch was held at the United Nations in New York and attended by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Anaan.
The date of 23 June was chosen because on this day in 1954, Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba, the inspiration behind this charity, became a widow with seven young children whom she raised and educated single-handed although she had never received any formal schooling herself.
Through our work over the years in India we have become increasingly aware that widows and their children face similar acute problems all over the world resulting from social stigma, conflict, extreme poverty and disease. Millions of widows and their children across the world are the poorest of the poor, invisible, forgotton and unheard. There are estimated to be more than 100 million widows in the world and their number is increasing every day due to HIV/AIDS and conflict in many countries. With this new initiative we aim to address their tragic plight in many countries. We very much hope that the United Nations would recognise the day to bring a global focus to address the plight of widows.
We have held global events to mark International Widows Day. See details:
