Entembeni Old People’s Home to be renamed
ENTEMBENI Old People’s Home in Bulawayo will be renamed in recognition of the role played by senior citizens living at the institution.
In an interview with Southern Eye yesterday, Entembeni board chairperson Newman Sibanda said: “Our dream is to change the name of this institution from Old People’s Home to Aged People’s Home. We feel that this will be the most befitting name after realising that as our people grow, wisdom also increases, our institution is blessed with such senior citizens who are now the fountain of knowledge, but appear to be forgotten.”
He added: “Some people think that it is a home of destitutes, not knowing that it is divided into two categories.”
He paid tribute to those who are giving a helping hand to the institution and appealed for financial assistance from well-wishers for the benefit of senior citizens.
“I have learnt that people have deviated from their culture, that is why we are faced with so many challenges in life, especially the youth. These aged people have answers to our challenges even to the drought situation,” Sibanda noted.
“Our aged people are calling on people to go back to their roots. It is a taboo for a girl to move around in public with her umbilical cord in the open thinking that it is about fashion, not knowing that this will bring a curse to her in the future.”
Sibanda urged youths to visit the institution to get advice from the elderly persons.
“People must come and visit our aged people and have an experience of their lifetime. We have started engaging schools as well after realising that children do not understand what a granny is,” he said.
“They think of an old person with a walking stick without understanding the brighter side.”