Our primary target is the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna. This is the third most populous city in Nigeria and a cosmopolitan state. It is also the political capital of northern Nigeria. Unfortunately, it is a state that is prone to violence of different kinds – from sectarian to religious, to ethnic conflicts to kidnapping for ransom and banditry. These different forms of conflict conspire to increase the rate at which women become widows and thus the need to support them with our intervention.

Dear Lord and Father, the God of all flesh…
Thank you for the privilege of participation in this noble task, for the sake of your good name.
Your word says in Proverbs 19:17: “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.” I have honored your invitation to join hands with other believers to offer succor to those in need, one soul at a time: though little, yet with a heart of sacrifice. Please, Lord, multiply my little and cause it to bless a soul, give hope to someone and a reason to praise you. Help me to never look back, be bothered about personal reward or focused on publicity, but grant me the grace to be satisfied in following through with this commitment knowing that I am only doing your will. Father, help me to do this without crushing the dignity of the ones I am going to assist. Provide for me always so that I do not fail to live up to my commitment.
Lord, may this passion for the needy never die, may our number increase in leaps and bounds, may our reach widen and, Lord, please do great and mighty deeds through us that will bring glory to your name, and cause your kingdom to come in our lives. LEAD US ARIGHT AND LEAD US ALWAYS ON THIS JOURNEY IN EVERY DECISION WE TAKE.
Lord, when at last I come to you, may I hear those beautiful words “well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your eternal reward.”
Thank you for doing exceedingly more than I have asked, for I pray in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Composed by the Chief Servant

Hon. Mrs Laurentia Laraba Mallam – Chairperson
Emmanuel Junior Zakka – Secretary
Mr. Paul Kumai Anyip – Member
Ms Ninette Nyalyen Ninyio – Legal Adviser
Mr. Isaac Mbing – Member

Emmanuel Junior Zakka – Chairman
Jerome Akyasa Waziri – Secretary
Gideon Dauda Usman – Member
Veronica Ochanya Odeh – Member
Evelyn Kwasu Yechen – Member

On February 17, 2020 – the year of the global pandemic, Covid-19, and the accompanying lockdown, I got clear inspiration to start an initiative to support widows in particular. I was not surprised because as the son of a widow – I lost my dad since age 18 months – I knew what widows in my community endure in silence trying to fend for their families. I knew the lockdown was going to worsen their plight. So I put out a post on my Facebook page with the title “The 100 Selfless Generals” inviting like-minded people to join me in the cause: “let us have a group of 100 men and women who desire to lift others out of misery…” The first person to respond was Pastor Jerome A. Waziri – he has been the Secretary of the Foundation ever since. In two days, I had over 100 people who elected to join and so we set out on the mission. Meanwhile I had already created a WhatsApp group for it, added those who indicated interest and explained the vision clearly to them as follows:

Dear Servants,

We are here to fulfil a mandate God has given to us – to support those who live in conditions worse off than ours; one soul at a time. We each know someone who is struggling, one way or another, certainly.

 To achieve this, we will each contribute AT LEAST a thousand naira only every month and offer support to someone or some persons to try to lift them out of despair. The times are hard.

This is why we are here and I beg you to NEVER despair. God will do it because he brought us together. God bless you all.  – Emmanuel Junior Zakka (Convener)

I then followed that up with the following comment:

I hope that everyone understands clearly this vision: we are not here to contribute money and share among ourselves, NEVER. We are here to each sacrifice at least a thousand naira per month and whatever we realise we identify some people (widows) in need in our society and offer them support. I hope that is the understanding we all have in joining this effort.

The Organisation officially took off on February 26, 2020, but most members made contributions in areas for January. Our slogan is a quote from Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “If you cannot feed a thousand mouths, feed just one.” Initially, the organisation was to be known as “Selfless Generals” but I had trouble in my spirit with the name and so I made the following observation to members which led to a new name:

I have been having troubles since the time we used SELFLESS GENERALS to describe ourselves. Something has kept telling me it is not the right name.

Now I have a clear understanding why:

“In the eyes of the world you all must appear as SERVANTS; it is in My own eyes that you are SELFLESS GENERALS.”

I heard that clearly and I am now at peace. We are therefore SERVANTS (unqualified) for the Needy and not SELFLESS GENERALS.

On how to deal with disbursements, I had the following spelt out, which I quote at length:

Once we each pay our MINIMUM ONE THOUSAND naira each month, we will then go ahead with the disbursement, guided by the seven-man committee we agreed on. Please, take this from me as a pledge: we will NEVER use contributions from this house for our family members. Don’t be scared. Donations will begin from the first day of every month to the end of the month. Disbursements will be between the 2nd and the 25th of every month so that monthly report can be prepared and presented to the general house on what was received and how it was disbursed before the next disbursements begin. Whenever we offer assistance to someone (in the name of this charity), please I encourage us to avoid posting their pictures on social media. I have always found it humiliating to do so. Wherever we take assistance, we should leave the cameras behind.

The 7-man committee had the following members: Joseph Yawuck, Esq., Mr Francis I. Mgbodile, Mrs Evelyn Yechen, Mrs Virginia Ibeaka, Pst. Waziri Jerome A., Dr Ellen S. Umoh, and Mr. Emmanuel Junior Zakka. The Organisation was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on July 28, 2020, with the help of our members who are lawyers – Ninette N. Ninyio, Esq. and Joseph Yawuck, Esq. I paid the 100 dollar bill for the registration but no consultancy fee was charged by the lawyers. As requirement for the registration, a 5-man Board of Trustees was formed. The members are as follows: Hon. Laurentia L. Mallam, Mr Emmanuel J. Zakka, Mr Paul K. Anyip, Ninette N. Ninyio, Esq. and Mr Isaac Mbing. The Organisation has a corporate bank account with the following signatories: Waziri Jerome A., Janet George and Emmanuel J. Zakka. It is worth noting that in the 3 years the foundation has been in existence, over 220 widows (with addresses and contacts) have benefited from the food subsidy support and another 35 have been trained in various skills – tailoring, cookery and pastry, soap-making, popcorn production, with startups. From our follow-up with them, many of them have become self-sustaining in their businesses.

In the first year, the principal focus of the organisation was to provide food subsidy to vulnerable widows using the whole contributions. In the second year, only contributions from the first 3 quarters were used for that purpose. The contributions from the last quarter is now used to provide skills and startups for those trained in those skills. Where the widows are too old or frail to benefit from the training, a dependent of their own choosing is selected to benefit. The focus skills are: cookery and pastries, tailoring, soap-making, and popcorn production. With these skills and startups, the beneficiaries are then able to become self-reliant and provide for their families. The success stories from these efforts are humbling and awe-inspiring! The mission of Servant for the Needy Foundation is to be a trailblazing nonprofit for the cause of widows, guided by the principle “if you cannot feed a thousand mouths, feed just one.” Through the provision of food subsidy, soft skills and start-ups, we mobilize support for vulnerable widows in the hope of empowering many out of abject poverty to live meaningful lives. This mission is to accomplish the vision of creating a society where vulnerable widows are empowered toward self-reliance, and thus able to live in conditions worthy of their human dignity – one soul at a time.  

Dignity – giving to the needy does not confer on the giver the right to treat the recipient with indignity

Gratitude – our giving to those in need is our gratitude to God for what he has given us free – for what is it we have that we did not receive?

Privacy – to render assistance to widows in need and keep the cameras away

Respect – in giving to the poor, we respect the sacredness of their humanity

Sacrifice – giving is a sacrifice from our little – no one is too poor to give

Service – God has called us to serve as He did, not to be served

Our Motto: If you cannot feed a thousand Mouths… Feed Just One

Servants for the Needy Foundation is a nascent, three-year old, organisation concerned with supporting widows in
northern Nigeria with food subsidy and skills to cushion the suffering they go through in silence trying to
fend for their families and empower them to become self-reliant. Widows in Nigeria generally, and in the
north of Nigeria in particular, are often neglected and left to their devices, exposed to danger and
vulnerability, as they try to survive. The consequences for them, their children’s future and the society are dire.
These dire consequences may be inevitable without intervention. Consider the following compelling statistics:
● One in 10 African women age 15 or older are widows.
● Nigeria is home to about 15 million of the world’s 258 million widows
● About 1 percent of all Nigerian men are widowers compared to 9 percent women who are widows
When a woman is left widowed in Nigeria, she is often left to care for children or grandchildren. Studies have
shown that most widows have between three and eight children or grandchildren Eboiyehi (2013). This is
indeed concerning. Mastey (2009) describes widowhood as “a tragic moment in a woman’s life – one in which
her identity is stripped away with the death of her husband.” Unfortunately, this is the truth about widowhood
in Nigeria, and specifically in my community. Because of countless conflicts ranging from Boko harma insurgency,
kidnapping and killing of victims in custody, religious conflicts, killing of farmers by gun-wielding herders, the
rate at which women are becoming widows is growing astronomically. Researches in rural Nigeria have shown
that most widows receive little to no assistance from the government, family, or their communities; instead,
they provide for themselves in any way possible. Servants for the Needy Foundation is unswervingly committed to
providing assistance to widows in dire need and drawing attention of government to their plight. We envision
a future where most of these widows will be empowered with skills that could help them become self-reliant.
Together, we can redefine the unsavory narrative of widowhood in Nigeria.