Senior citizens to benefit from social package

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Monday, 08 October 2012 22:17

By Joas Kaijage The Citizen Correspondent Bukoba. About 1,100 senior citizens in Muleba district can now benefit from a social support package dispatched through a local organisation, Kwa Wazee, in Nshamba division.The social support package seeks to enable elderly people to cater for their livelihoods and meet basic needs. Kwa Wazee official Ester Majura said in Nshamba recently that the package included house construction and provision of a monthly pension.Ms Majura noted that Kwa Wazee had been able to reach out to 1,100 elderly people caring for about 616 grandchildren registered since its inception in 2003. She said the programme was a result of an innovation by a Swiss national, Mr Kurt Madoern, who was formally working with the organisation as a volunteer in Nshamba when he started the pension idea. She said at the beginning, Mr Medoern started the pension idea with 54 eligible elderly people who each earned Sh3,000 every month. Because of the growing number of poor families seeking his assistance, Mr Kurt sought support from his Swiss colleagues and the number of beneficiaries had then reached 1,100 people.On the World Elders Day marked recently, it was revealed that each senior citizen was getting Sh10,500, whereas each grandchild under the elderly people’s guardianship earned Sh6,000 monthly. “The organisation has started other projects to sustain the lives of elderly people, including the construction of low cost houses,” she said.Other projects associated with senior citizens include digging shallow wells. About 800 people living with HIV/Aids are also provided with financial support. Kwa Wazee has also devised a strategy of mobilising recipients to form groups through which they can run small income generating projects. The initiative, according to the organisation’s officials, has seen 71 such groups established. There are also 154 groups formed by young people. The officials said the elderly as well as the youth were encouraged to establish small-scale savings and credit schemes to meet their basic needs.