" THE WIDOWED SOUTH AFRICA TRUST"

IT954/2010/PMB

Welcome to Widowed South Africa.

Widow Without - On Sale Now

To place order contact tash@widowed.co.za

or sms 0731330408 - A book about love and loss.....

Also available on Kalahari.net and soon to be avialable at leading book stores

around the country.

We hope you will find here a place of healing, love and light. Through our loss, lets forge bonds of friendship, support and aid to move forward. 

FOUNDER'S NOTE

MY STORY

At 29, my life did a complete turn around when my husband of five years died in a tragic car accident 47 seconds away from our home. I had a twp year old son at the time and was pregnant with my second child but miscarried a week later. Life as I knew it was never the same again. Everything about it changed and trying to find the tools to move on from it and find myself again was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.

The word "widow" didn't ever occur to me until I became one. I've learned that the widowed are sometimes the forgotten members of society, often as a result of social stigma and or society's discomfort / ignorance when it comes to dealing with the widowed. I searched endlessly for support groups, information and help to cope but found nothing but ones for single parents and divorced parents. People often compare us to the divorced and put us in the divorced category, which of course is not the same at all. We dont choose to be single, it often happens suddenly and is beyond our control. Our children as well dont experience the same emotions. They have no chance of seeing their lost parent again. They too are robbed of them suddenly. The rest of society meanwhile,frequently treat us like victims which results sometimes is us treating ourselves like victims, which often leads to an abyss of depression and self pity.

The truth is I will always be Denver's widow and I will always go through the emotions and everything else that goes with losing him - a person I loved more than life. My greatest fear before I lost him was losing him and I was always so paranoid when it came to him but its so funny how you are sometimes forced into facing your greatest fear and you have to learn to overcome and survive it.

That's why I founded WIDOWED SOUTH AFRICA - the country's first support group for widowed people and their children. The response has been overwhelming and now I know Im not alone.

It occurred to me that so many of us share the same emotions and feelings although we've had different experiences of how we lost them even if we've moved on. I am often amazed by how we share the similiar thoughts, feelings,emotions and life events.

It occured to me also that society may not know how to treat us, respond to us and or react to who we are and the loss we experienced. And I decided the best way to create awareness and get society to get to  know us is by telling them what we are, showing them what we need and sharing with them our experiences and hope to teach them how to treat us, react to us and look at us.

Given our current rate of HIV/Aids, accidents and crime, the number of widowed are rapidly on the increase. We are no longer an isolated group. We need to stand together, support each other and help each other move on to healing, light and joy.

Since its inception the foundation now has thousands of members around the world and support groups in place. Its been featured on 3 Talk with Noeleen, Living and Loving, You Magazine, Your Family, Joy Magazine, The Independent on Saturday, Sunday Tribune, Sunday Times, Cape Argus, Media Online, and Pretoria News as well as numerous other community newspapers.

Widowed SA, is committed to achieving complete support for all those who have lost a loved one and in so doing help them move on to a better life.

Much Lovies

Tash Reddy

Visit also : www.denverreddy.memory-of.com

www.sherwynn-kesoparsad.memory-of.com

It's am excellent way to healing and celebrating our loved ones and the lives they shared with us.

14. SHARON KENT

" THE WIDOWED SOUTH AFRICA TRUST"