BY: LEONARD MUKOOLI
John Wekoye emerges out of his house in namutembi cell manafwa district, he decries of isolation and neglation from society due to his old age . photo by leonard mukooli
When other Countries enforced lockdown measures to curtail the spread of covid-19 pandemic in 2020, President Yoweri Museveni jumped on the wagon issuing an order for the temporal closure of all public places where people would gather in big numbers and these included: bars, weekly markets, churches, and schools among others.
This establishment of the lockdown meant that people who were working in these places where to stay at home without working while other in other places where the employers had a contingency plan in place, the shifts and half payments were introduced to enable their employees to survive.
Retiree
As this was happening, no one envisaged the lockdown would be prolonged for two years and this caught many people off guard with no preparation hence they suffered the wrath of the pandemic.
With life becoming so hard on the daily basis and few people being in a position to earn, the elderly both in the rural and urban settings who mostly relied on their children and grandchildren for survival lived a harsh life that still lives to the tale.
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It’s a common practice in human life where the parents take care of their children with the hope that these (children) will reciprocate support to them in old age when they are not self-reliant.
However, due to the financial constraint brought in by the effects of the pandemic, they couldn’t reciprocate the expected support as most of them had lost jobs forcing them to migrate back to villages while other conditions forced them to flee their homes in search for survival elsewhere.
JOHNWE2
Ailing health and neglect
Seated leaning against the wooden chair painted in a cream colour is the retired bishop Samuel Wabulakha of Mbale Archi diocese in eastern Uganda. He sips his tea from a big white metallic mug from his retirement home in Walaga cell in Manafwa town council Manafwa district.
Wabulakha notes that the plight covid-19 pandemic worsened the situation of the elderly as they developed a fear of going to health facilities thinking they could go there and get infected.
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He explains that access to health services is a big challenge that old people still face as they are often neglected by both the children and other members of the community.
“These don’t have access to a balanced diet as they are enabled to go to gardens to fend for themselves and at the end, they develop some health complications that are not even treated on time”
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Wabulakha further revealed “We have lost many of these elderlies because they are neglected and the current impacts of the pandemic on the economy have made the situation worsen that we are losing the elderly almost every fortnight”
The ailing economic situation brought on by Covid-19 has made the community presume the elderly as a great burden than a wealth of knowledge and experience.
Wabulakha reveals “The hard economic situation has forced many children and grandchildren to wish us death because they feel we have lived beyond our expected time. They no longer want to take care of us yet we are a spring of knowledge”
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Isolation and stigmatization
As one ages, there is that disconnect he or she gets from the rest of the world thus to make them feel a sense of belonging, there are always certain peers whom one tends to associate with who give them comfort.
However, Elizabeth Namanda an elderly woman in her 86 years of age in Nabikingi cell in Buwangani town council in Manafwa district notes the pandemic has influenced the gap between them and the community as people started shunning them.
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A mere glance at her house which is filled with the cobweb and dark smoke on the mud and wattle wall alone resonates the desire to support the elderly in all forms of care especially as she reveals “I have poor beddings and hardly eat two meals in a day and it’s upon the good Samaritans and only grandson who offer me with some food once in a while when they pass by”
Florence Nambuya Masette another elderly from Bukhisa Corner cell in Manafwa Town Council also notes ailing health is the biggest challenge that the elderly continues to face to date.
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Although she is in a better financial state as her children continue supporting her to date, the retired teacher revealed that the pandemic affected the elderly direly to the extent that some still shun going to health facilities.
“We had trying moments during the lockdown to the extent some of our peers died at home simply because no one could visit them to know what they were going through” Nambuya reveals as she notes that as one grows old to her age, their bodies become weak and can’t support themselves “thus many of the elderly continued to live alone unable to plough food for themselves hence developed severe health complications that they still live with to date”
AGROUP11
John Wekoye another resident of Namutembi village in Manafwa district also notes “When you grow old it’s your body immune gets weak and it is susceptible to illness and you may think all these have been sent to eliminate you” adding “This worsens when you have no money at all in your pocket”
He adds noting that his life has become so difficult since he discovered having diabetes.
Wabulakha further highlights “rapid death of the elderly in the community is highly interlinked with the isolation they face in the community which depresses them so much”
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Rejuvenation of the need to support the elderly
The need to support the elderly person didn’t start today rather since 2015, the government of Uganda with support from the donor has been running a senior citizen grant (SCG) under the social assistance for empowerment program (SAGE) where the elderly who are above the age of eighty years are supported with Ugx 25000 and the equivalent of $7 month.
However, during the lockdown, this support came to a halt for fear of spreading the disease thus making the life of the seniors very difficult making matters worse the donors announced withdrawal from the program but the program has resumed its operation with more elders being brought on board.
And in the bid of supporting the efforts of the government, some community members of the Bugisu sub-region have championed to establish an organization that is specifically dedicated to supporting the seniors.
Mary Khanakwa who hails from Bubulo in the Manafwa district but lives in the United States of America has mobilized her peer both in Uganda and the diaspora to help the needy seniors who have continued to suffer since the peak of the pandemic.
Khanakwa who is the President of Universal Seniors Social Services Uganda (USSSU) said “We have discussed and further carried out a study about the plight of the seniors in Bugisu region and realized that most of them have a great challenge in access to health services, food, good shelter as well as isolation from the community.”
She noted, given the dire state of the seniors, they opted to form an organization that would reignite the desire to take care of the elderly by improving their lives.
“This organization is now having its roots here in Uganda and we are aiming at meeting the gaps in the lives of our seniors’ ages 75 years and older by engaging local communities to provide care and meet their food security, nutrition, medical and psychosocial needs,” said Khanakwa revealing “we registered over two thousand elderly persons and are now being enrolled onto the organization program”
“Our overall goal is to meet the Dignity, Food and Nutrition, Love and Belonging, Mobility, Medical and Psychosocial well-being needs of our seniors” she added.
Even though homes for the elderly are not advocated for by the Ugandan government for fear of abandoning the elders, Betty Wakou the vice president of USSSU revealed “we are secured space where we are going establish a social centre for the elderly persons. These will able to meet here and interacts once or twice a month as well as have a meal with them”
She added, “We have gone into partnership with one government hospital in Manafwa district where our doctors will be visiting to specifically deal with the health of the elderly on a specific day every month”. Wakou explained justifying that “the elderly persons require special attention and time which they hardly get when they visit the hospital on usual days thus this arrangement will enable them to attend sufficiently”
John Wanda the founder of REACH for Uganda an NGO with activities in the Bugisu sub-region noted that the pandemic has inculcated their desire as an organization to take care of the elderly given the challenges they face.
Wanda highlights that the elderly are key people with a wealth of knowledge that needs to be preserved noting that “this our future and no one wishes to be abandoned without a care in their old age.”
“We need to love and care for our elders the same way they took care of us when we were young thus, it is not late for us to reciprocate” Wanda noted adding “As an organization, we have started to improve the home of our elderly person in the community through the better housing program where we cement for them the floor and give them a solar light,”
“We are also trying to empower them financially by integrating them into the already existing microfinance program that focuses on women. In this, we want to see that the elderly has some financial power to decide on what to eat to improve their nutrition health,” Wanda said.
He further revealed to have started a new initiative of give a feast to the elderly where they come together drink eat and interact with one another.
Although the organization has come to assist the seniors in areas of social services, the state minister in charge of the elderly Gidudu Mafaabi said the ministry is planning to review the age and amount that the elderly who benefit from the SAGE program receive.
Given the hard economic times and inflation, there is a need to review the program and since most of the Donors are pulling out, we need to own up to the program to see that our elders are taken care of well in most of the aspects of life.
And Seth Wambende and Karim Masaba legislators in Mbale city have equally promised to rally support in parliament to see that some of the assistance for the elderly being channelled through these organizations is set to tax free.
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Leonard Mukooli and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.