Initiatives pay off for Marondera’s elderly

JUNE 2018 marked the birth of a new era for the elderly in Marondera.

The senior citizens received training under a project dubbed Older Citizen Monitoring, a concept which empowers them to engage with Government and community leaders to deliver improved services in health and social protection.

To achieve this, the concept recommends that older persons organise themselves into groups according to their villages and wards and these groups constitute Older Persons Committees with a collective mandate to mobilise and empower the aged.

Among those trained were Sekuru Peter Chivhanga and Bothwell Nyamuchengwa who reside in Maziyamhandu and Manyaira villages, respectively. The two are some of the many “foot champions” among older persons who have dedicated their time and energy to improving their own lives and that of their peers. These initiatives ensure that this demographic group is not relegated to the periphery of social and economic development issues.

“We were taught about our rights as old people, including our right to health services and the right to a good life. The trainings enlightened us because we are now aware of the entitlements for older persons such as free access to health and social protection provisions from the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare”, said Sekuru Chivhanga.

Gogo Ancicolia Chigwada, one of the first female champions trained under the programme said a number of old people have received medical assistance as a result of the initiative.

“We are being taken care of very well at our clinic because of this programme. We no longer queue but are given first preference when we visit clinics. Some of us who need psychosocial support or close monitoring are assigned village health workers who assist us.

“Nurses at most clinics have also been trying to get us medication so that we do not buy expensive medication from pharmacies.

Our lives became much easier when mobile clinics for older persons were introduced when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak. This helped a number of older persons who could not access medical assistance because they did not have approval to travel due to lockdown restrictions”, she said.

Sekuru Nyamuchengwa said because of the Older Citizen Monitoring initiative, their access to health services has improved.

“We have been visiting all households so as to create a database of all people aged 60 years and above.

“We have managed to get in contact with the local leadership, the police and rural clinics in our wards as we continue our work to help older persons. The problems that we face as old people are many but we cannot deal with some of these issues on our own.”

For any group to fully function, its relationship with the rest of the community should be based on trust and trust is earned. Fortunately, they did earn the trust of most community members, despite numerous challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some of the partner organisations involved in the programme include the Legal Resources Foundation, National Ageing Network of Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Nurses and village health workers from the Ministry of Health and Child Care based at rural health facilities in Marondera were trained on palliative care and older persons’ rights as the project anticipated an increase in the number of older persons visiting the rural health facilities following awareness raising activities by the group.

For Sekuru Chivhanga, the trainings in health and palliative care made a huge difference in his life as he is currently looking after his 111 year old father. The family probably has a secret to long life as his mother passed on at the age of 109.

Stigma and discrimination are some of the challenges that old people face. Mbuya Chigwada almost shed tears as she painfully narrated her experience at the hands of her family and community members.

“I have been accused of witchcraft and faced several threats from family and members of the community.

“This is only because of the fact that I am old and many old persons in my community face the same. These are the issues that we seek to address as we raise awareness on ageing. We have received support from the Legal Resources Foundation. Other older persons face challenges of losing their livestock through theft and family disputes.

“We have had cases where some old people have lost their cattle through relatives who sell the cows without consent because they take advantage of the fact that old people may not have the strength to check on their cattle.

“Fortunately, I am glad to say that cases of abuse of older persons or violations of their rights are reducing due to awareness raising activities that we have conducted through our groups.”