BVM Legacy of Love: Fullness of Life Counseling and Development Initiative

Eunice Oduware’s business selling fish and soup items has expanded thanks to the Fullness of Life Counseling and Development Initiative Centre (FULIFE) and a Ministry Partnership Grant from the Sisters of Charity, BVM.

Sister Florence Nwaonuma, a member of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an indigenous congregation in Nigeria, has been deeply involved in the fight against human trafficking for more than 20 years.

She works to empower women and continues to help combat human trafficking through a ministry sponsored by her congregation: Fullness of Life Counseling and Development Initiative Centre (FULIFE).

Florence describes Benin City, where FULIFE is located, as the hub for trafficking in persons in Nigeria.

The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary awarded two Ministry Partnership grants for FULIFE.

Specifically, the grants have supported FULIFE’s work to help widows out of poverty by offering them direct services that lead to financial empowerment while also educating them on how to better meet their needs and those of their families.

No Longer Vulnerable

Once empowered, these families are no longer vulnerable or susceptible to trafficking, says Florence, who served two terms as superior general of her congregation, as national president of the Nigeria Conference of Women Religious, and on the advisory board of the African Sisters Education Collaborative.

According to Florence, the vision of the center is rooted in John 10:10: “I have come so that they may have life and have it in full.”

The direct services include education on how to run and manage their own small businesses and support until the women, ages 45 to 75, can run their businesses successfully on their own.

Through monthly meetings with the widows, the center also provides the women with psychosocial support, counseling and spiritual direction, and prayer sessions.

Florence said the widows support one another as well, visiting each other at home and in their shops, sharing food and clothes.

Taking Care of Themselves and Others 

Widows use profits from their businesses to care for their children and themselves as well as train their children in schools or offer them training in skills that will keep them busy and make them economically empowered.

Following the first grant, Florence and her team were proud to note that not a single child of any of their widows was trafficked. Many of the women are living in more decent homes and in better areas of the city because now they can afford to pay rent for decent living for their children.

One widow was able to buy a plot of land for building her own house, another opened a shop for her son who sells phones and accessories.

“The impact of the BVM grant on the beneficiaries cannot be quantified,” reports Florence. “The grant impacted positively on the widows, their families, and their environment. I join them to thank you all for your kindness and your sacrifices for our widows. Virtually all of them and their children were suffering and highly vulnerable, especially their children. With your assistance the story has changed for good for the 17 of them.”

Eunice Oduware was paid less than $23 a month where she was working but when the grant came, she resigned to manage her own business. Now she makes not less than $140 as profit every month. “I used to beg people to give me money to buy food,” she says. “I am the one now giving people money to buy food.”

Florence expects Eunice’s business to grow and profit margins to increase.

“The grant has also helped us in the office,” she says. “With the grant we are able to pay staff salary, maintain communication and office equipment like computers, and run our little car.”

With the grant we are able to pay staff salary, maintain communication and office equipment like computers, and run our little car.”

This remarkable program offers the BVM congregation an opportunity to directly impact one of its major social justice concerns: human trafficking. Partnering with the FULIFE project makes BVM core values of freedom, education, charity, and justice come alive in the lives of widows with children living in a country where the problem of human trafficking is very real in the extreme.

In January 2021, FULIFE held business training for 17 widows with the help of the second BVM grant. They learned bookkeeping and other skills, and that business is a vocation.

“In all it was a beautiful day with our women, and they were happy,” says Florence.

About the author: Patricia M. Bombard, BVM serves as director of Vincent on Leadership: The Hay Project at DePaul University in Chicago and on the Advisory Board of the African Sisters Education Collaborative. She recommended FULIFE for a Ministry Partnership Grant.

This story was featured in:

SUMMER 2021: A Moving Experience
In this issue of Salt, we share how Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary move onward as they make Mount Carmel Bluffs their home, use their gifts in ministry and donations, and plan for post-pandemic life while strengthening their community bonds and continuing efforts to end systemic racism.

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