TIKKUN and pension-fund company Alexander Forbes have joined hands to launch a home-care of the aged project.
Simon Mhlanga is a bedridden pensioner. He lives with Queen Zuma who assists him with household chores. Conditions in and around the house are not that inspiring.
These days, however, Mhlanga has something to smile about. NGO Tikkun has intervened to make his life more comfortable.
Tikkun, from a Jewish word meaning “helping transformation”, and pension-fund company Alexander Forbes have joined hands to launch a home-care of the aged project.
Says Tikkun project manager Trevor Selebi: “You should have seen this house before. It was very terrible, there was all sorts of dirt you can think of. [It was] so filthy you could not believe people lived in it.” He started by cleaning the house, then fitted new doorframes, plastered the walls, fitted windowpanes and applied fresh paint.
The Tikkun-Alexander Forbes project doesn’t only repair and renovate houses, it also provides shelter, food, blankets, clothing and other necessities to the elderly. Selebi says the project has identified 100 shacks in Alexandra that need to be refurbished and repaired, or simply need a fresh coat of paint. It has also identified a site where a village that will accommodate 40 elderly people with all the basic amenities can be established. This will be fenced and have a vegetable garden.
Not far from Mhlanga’s home stands a decrepit house owned by another wheelchair-bound pensioner, Patricia Mothibe (81). She is the next in line to benefit from the project. Her one-roomed house is a sorry sight. Its rusty roof sports huge gaping holes that leak when it rains.
As a result the ceiling and the wooden frame of the sole window are giving in. The house is located on a slope, dangerously close to a busy taxi route. Because of this it is extremely difficult to push her wheelchair around the yard.
An assortment of cloths are used to partition the kitchen from the bedroom. The floor is cracked and the door so rickety it could fall off anytime. Selebi says all this will be the thing of the past, as the house will be extended and the rusty corrugated roofing replaced. He says some work will be done to make sure that it is no longer a hassle to push Mothibe’s wheelchair around the yard.
The project found an ally in councillor Linda Twala, who is not only a community leader but has a proven record in caring for the elderly.
Twala founded Phuthadichaba Care of the Aged to address the needs of the elderly and the youth in Alexandra. In recognition of his efforts he was voted community-builder of the year and the community-builder of the decade in 1991 and 2000 respectively.
Says Twala: “I was touched by the plight of the elderly, particularly after the floods and the removal of people to Bramfischer and Diepsloot.” More importantly he wanted to maintain and deepen “extended family” values. Twala says he envisaged a centre that differs from conventional “old-age” centres in that “a typical old-age centre accommodates the elderly only, while kids aren’t [provided for]”.
He says as a result of this most kids are left without parental supervision when their elderly caregivers move into these homes. Says Twala: “the reason why today we have so many street kids and orphans is because of the breakdown of family units and values.
“Most children are taken care of by the elderly who unfortunately are forced to go to old-age centres.” He says youths play a role in the project. For example, youths visit the elderly, paint their houses and distribute blankets. Locals who are skilled in certain trades are also involved.
“There are plenty of people with a variety of skills here in Alexandra and we try to involve them in the projects.”
Twala says “not all of [the elderly] pay for their services because most of them do not have identity books to get their pension grant. As for health, we do have a clinic at our centre that takes care of their health-related problems for free.”
Alexander Forbes spokesperson Debbie Kotzen says her company had always wanted to get involved with the elderly from “disadvantaged” communities. She says its involvement in the project makes sense because, as a financial services company, it handles and administers pension funds. She says her company got involved last December after it realised that a “lot of money is spend on youth” projects. She says, in the final analysis, even though focus is on the elderly, the benefits of the project will reach the youth in one way or the other.
Kotzen says the project is hoping to capitalise on the presence of heads of states and other leaders who will be present at the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development. “There will be a lot of people from different developed countries and hopefully, after they have seen this, they would be interested and donate to our cause.”