Old age is said to be the golden years of a person’s life. After a lifetime of responsibilities and duties, old age is supposed to be the time to take it easy and enjoy the fruits of your labour. For many elders in Uganda, this isn’t the case. Many are abandoned due to domestic violence, poverty or death of family members due to chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS.

The youth founders of this organization realized the prevailing needs of their communities and negligence of several concerned stakeholders in the communities to empower older person headed families with income generating activities and to promote the health of older people and vulnerable/Marginalized children in these household and advocating for better cultural practices. This is to the background that older persons make tremendous contribution to society as guardian of vulnerable/marginalized children and they are the custodians of tradition and cultural values which upholds the growth and the development of our society.

Challenge

Elders who have been abandoned by their families face untold struggles- they are often unable to work due to their age and so can’t support themselves. Many are thrown out of their homes onto the street. With no shelter and no care, the elderly often unable to survive like this. Some end up sick, some are injured, and countless die alone with no one to comfort them or give them something to feed on.

Solution

The elderly are deemed non-productive and of no sound use in our society because of this negative attitude, they are left out of all matters in society and socio-economic planning. This has highly affected their health, economics and social status negatively. Our faith, we are out to redeem this to its positive end through a series of activities and projects. It’s our responsibility to sensitize the communities and actors on the rights and responsibilities of the older persons and vulnerable individuals living in there households. This therefore includes the importance of active participation of older persons in the development of initiatives in our communities.

Long-Term Impact

When the elders are feeding well, they will become healthy. This will reduce on the level of elderly mortality rate in Uganda.