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| Sunday, 16 February 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Ageing gracefully by Carol Aloysius The overcast sky and the first drops of rain outside her window only heightened the sense of isolation and despondency that 77 year old Merrita Gunesekera was experiencing that Saturday afternoon until she heard the tap on her door.
Her face lit up. It was the call she was expecting all day. Dragging herself with difficulty out of her chair, she opened the door to admit two young girls in guide uniforms who after greeting her warmly, set about their tasks of making her comfortable. Changed her damp clothes which were bathed in sweat, they made her a hot cup of tea and read her the newspaper.When they finally left , she had fallen into a contented sleep already looking forward to another of their visits the next day. Disabled with a severe attack of arthritis, the task of moving out of her bed even to make herself a cup of tea, let alone attending to simple household chores had been an exhausting task for this former school teacher living alone in a single room in a housing complex. Fortunately for her, two young girls living nearby, both of them girl guides , had heard of her plight and volunteered to help her. This frail septuagenarian was not the only elderly person in her housing complex to be fortunate to have a voluntary 'home care' service at her doorstep free of charge. Four doors next to her flat another septuagenarian, seventy year old former steno-typist Ms Jansz was also being befriended by a group of volunteer Carers - all girl guides. Collectively inspired by a desire to provide companionship and loving care to old and infirm persons in their neighbourhoods, this group of dedicated teenagers is part of a team of volunteers involved in a project that targets the needs of all elderly persons over the age of sixty years. Their aim; to help Sri Lanka's senior citizens to live out their last years with dignity, and to make them feel wanted and loved. The project, (one of three) is the brainchild of Ms Venetia Gamage, a former Chief Girl Guide Commissioner who is currently the President of the NGO Forum on Ageing (NFOA). The latter she says was set up by Ms Manel Abeyesekera, Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Womens' Conference. Its objective; to provide tender loving care to a marginalised section of population whose needs continue to remain sidelined. This is despite the fact that Sri Lanka's 'grey citizens' now comprise over ten percent of the population and expected to double within the next twenty years. Set up three years ago, the NGO, a consortium of organisations and individuals working towards the welfare of senior citizens , has already successfully carried out its first project which focused on the care of elderly persons in one's neighbourhood( including one's own parents and grandparents). It was this project,spearheaded by Venetia that made life so much simpler and comfortable for the two pensioners I mentioned."The participants in all three projects will be mostly girl guides,a group of young people I have worked with for more than half my life". says this former Girl Guide Chief Commissioner. A former teacher at Devi Balika and St John's Dematagoda, Venetia retired prematurely to take up the post of Girl Guide Commissioner . When she retired from this post, this active social worker took up the post of program director to train women entrepreneurs at the Women's chamber of commerce and then went on to work as Executive Director of an NGO on the Water and Sanitation which took her to some of the most remote villages in Sri Lanka where she counselled rural women on health and nutrition. So how did she get involved in working with elderly persons? Did she have any previous experience working with such persons? "Looking after two members of my own family, my father, until he died at the age of 90 years, and my mother-in-law who died at 87 years, gave me the hands-on-experience I needed for just this kind of work" she told this writer in a recent interview. The 66-year-old indefatigable social worker is currently in the middle of her second project "Challenge on Ageing" which was launched on October 2 last year and concludes on July 2 this year. It is a research program aimed at collecting as much information as we can about the rising senior citizens population in this country. Their needs will have to be met. We are still woefully lacking in basic data that can help us to prepare for that challenge ahead of us". To fill this gap Venetia has recruited young members of the Forum who were asked to interview elderly persons in their neighbourhoods and obtain statistics of the number of elderly people living among them, as well as statistics of the global and local ageing population. In the course of their research work they will also be expected to list the names of voluntary organisations working towards the welfare of the aged, spell out facilities available to such persons e.g. Day care centres in neighbourhoods, Homes for elders and the names of persons or organisations running such institutions, as well as provisions made to them by the State. Research apart, Venetia is also raising awareness about ageing and its attendant problems among the community." We are targeting the news papers, magazines, radio and TV to create awareness of the needs of our elderly citizens.", she explains. As she rightly believes," By involving young people in this kind of research, as well as her other projects is one way of bringing about a much needed change of attitude towards old persons among young people in this country. "Once they have identified the needs of elderly persons, I have asked them to go a step further and come up to with some practical solutions as to how we can fill in the gaps in elders' care." Her third and final project will be to create health awareness among the general public. As she points out, "Although it will ultimately be aimed at improving the health of old persons, we have to initially target young people below forty years, because good health in old age depends on the kind of nutrition and healthy life styles you lead in your early years". Her plans for the future include lobbying for more financial security for elderly persons, e.g. social insurance and better pensions; the provision of Home nursing for the old and infirm by skilled nurses (male and female), and better transport services for elderly persons to facilitate their mobility. At present the NFDA is also visiting elderly people in obtaining their special ID cards from the Social Services Dept. to provide them with various benefits. Venetia attributes the success of her projects thus far to the co-operation of her young volunteers who have sacrificed their time to become involved in her projects. However, she emphasises that she would, like to see more of the community getting involved in caring for elderly persons even to the extent of " adopting" an elderly person in their neighbourhood. For more information contact the NFOA at 30, Daya Road, Colombo 6 or telephone Venetia on 583593. |
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