12 countries celebrate June 23rd as International Widows Day and this year the push is to get the United Nations to do the same, to place a spotlight on the plight of 245 million widows worldwide,  especially those in the underserved world.

The facts are compelling.

A report commissioned by the Loomba Trust –a foundation which began in India and has spread its work to other parts of the middle East and Africa, reports there are more than 100 million widows in poverty. If you add by extension the children of the 245 milllion, their widowhood affects one-sixth of the world population.In many underdeveloped nations, a widow no longer has the rights of an indvidual because her rights were linked to her husband, or worse she is seen as the property of her husband’s estate –she is humiliated, ostracized, raped by relatives, her marital property and, sometimes, her children are taken away. She is considered bad luck, not welcome by her husband’s family and is, in some cases, labeled a witch.

The litany of horror is detailed in the Widows Research Report, commissioned by the Loomba Trust, and released at the United Nations (June 22, 2010) by Cherie Booth Blair, the trust's president, a human rights attorney and advocate, and former "first lady" of the UK. 27 ambassadors attended along with other advocates for women.

While much of the report focuses on these horrors, it also sites the displacement of widows in the developed world – war widows or by acts of terrorism, widows by illness, including AIDs and cancer, or accident. Society pays a price as well as the individual.

At the event, Raj Loomba, the founder, and Ms. Blair spoke with great passion to engage the ambassadors present to take up this cause.

Mr. Loomba is a wealthy London-based merchant who began the foundation to honor of his mother who was widowed and marginalized at age 37.  June 23rd is the day his father died. His first personal focus was to educate children of widows in India. But, as the rights abuses across the world became evident, the mission broadened.

The foundation is trying to grab UN attention to add the distinct needs of widows and their children to the UN "Gender Agenda." It’s not enough, they say, to lump widows in the women’s rights' bucket because in some cultures widows are so marginalized they are no longer considered women, many forced into life on the streets, into the sex trade or left to die.

I have spoken with Cherie Blair on a number of occasions about her passionate support of women's rights and she sees this widow abuse as an important target to help lift all women out of poverty, the desperate cycle of AIDS and abuse in war-ravaged countries as well as nations with cultural and societal pressures that damage women in widowhood. The United Nations was a particularly important forum.

More info on the report entitled: Invisible Forgotten Sufferers: The Plight of Widows Around the World can be found out theloombafoundation.org.

In addition to engaging Cherie Blair and her activism, the organization has garnered support from. Richard Branson of The Virgin Group. Ms. Blair has also begun The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, which works “in partnership with local organisations to develop projects with clear potential for women in business to become self-sustaining in the longer term.”

Helen Jonsen is editor of workingmother.com and writes a blog on work-life balance entitled Working Mom Daily Bread