Old age home seeks community support
Mbuqe said the pensioners were often lonely due to a lack of visits by their family members. “Most of our residents do not get enough attention from their families once they move in and this affects their wellbeing. We we need as many visitors as possible, even those who do not have an elderly relative living at the centre,” she said.
Mbuqe said the pensioners appreciated guests who came to the centre because it made them feel like they were part of the community.
“We have seen how excited they become on days like Mandela Day when guests from different organisations arrive with various activities as part of their 90 minutes for Mandela. Their faces light up and their spirits are lifted. We wish that such days could happen more often and not just on Mandela Day,” said Mbuqe.
Financial strains
Despite receiving a subsidy from the Department of Social Development, the centre is expected to come up with other ways to raise funds. Mbuqe said 75% of their financial support came from the government and they have to come up with the rest to keep the centre operational.
“This has made it difficult for us because most companies no longer offer financial support to organisations like ours,” she said.
According to Mbuqe, the centre relied on some of the money paid by its residents to make up the funds needed. “The pensioners pay a portion of their pension money for rent and food but it is not enough because their contribution is too small. We get families who add to the money paid by pensioners but some just think that the money paid by their elders is enough.”
The centre does not have its own transport which makes transporting the pensioners to the clinic for check-ups a challenge. “Not having our own transport also adds to the financial strain because we end up paying a substantial amount when taking our residents to the clinic. Taxis charge us extra because our elders need to be picked up and dropped off at the gate instead of at the regular loading areas.”
Community contributions
She said community members often made donations which were appreciated and she welcomed suggestions on how the centre can raise additional funds to keep the centre “in an acceptable condition”. Mbuqe added that some community members helped out by cleaning the centre and interacting with the pensioners.
Rebecca Mchunu runs a local crèche and often visits the old age home. “It is very important for us as a community to not abandon our elders when they move into old age homes. We sometimes bring the children to visit to teach them that elders must be appreciated and respected.” – Health-e News
Author
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Unless otherwise noted, you can republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license. Here’s what you need to know:
-
You have to credit Health-e News. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication.” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by Health-e News.” You must link the word “Health-e News” to the original URL of the story.
-
You must include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up link.
-
If you use canonical metadata, please use the Health-e News URL. For more information about canonical metadata, click here.
-
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week”)
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. Health-e News understands that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarise or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. You can find us on Twitter @HealthENews, Instagram @healthenews, and Facebook Health-e News Service.
You can grab HTML code for our stories easily. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our stories. You’ll find it with the other share buttons.
If you have any other questions, contact info@health-e.org.za.
Old age home seeks community support
by Marcia Moyana, Health-e News
December 24, 2018
Related
PCC: Lack of health representation in climate commission raises eyebrows
Activist concerned about lack of TB medication for children
Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is difficult to cope with for many adults who find themselves with the disease, and the amount of time it takes to manage it is frustrating. The situation is worse when a child has it and the treatment available is not suited to their needs.
Activist struggles to find reparation following surgeries
Activist and photographer open up about her struggles following surgeries she underwent as a child.