Agnes Kariuki, Kibera, Kenya | COVID-19: Older individuals’s tales
Older individuals are getting determined
I’m Agnes Kariuki, founder and CEO of the Kibera Day Care Centre for Older Folks. What I can say proper now’s that the Coronavirus pandemic has made issues very robust for older individuals in Kibera.
As you already know, Kibera is a slum space, the truth is the most important slum in Kenya if not in Japanese Africa, the place individuals don’t have any working water and have to purchase it at a excessive worth, no bathrooms, and really congested homes.
Issues are dangerous for older individuals dwelling in Kibera. This centre has been one of many three centres they’d come to get assist. However because the ban on public gathering on March 13, 2020 by the federal government, they can not come. I’m frightened about their circumstances however I additionally attempt to minimise interacting with individuals, together with my older individuals, since I’m additionally an older particular person mentioned to be vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Older Folks would come right here each Tuesday and Thursday to do quite a lot of actions like weaving and making liquid cleaning soap that they’d promote and get cash for; some would even use the cash to pay home lease. It is usually at this centre the place I’d talk authorities insurance policies and the advocacy messages from HelpAge to the older individuals. Even the messages on staying secure in opposition to coronavirus like washing hand with cleaning soap, social distancing and avoiding touching their face, I used to cross it to them whereas right here. However now I can’t. They’ve all been made to remain put of their homes, assuming they’ve a home.
As well as, the native Catholic Church, Guadalupe, that used to mobilise its members each Sunday to put aside some alms that they’d give to those older individuals on Mondays is now closed because the ban on church gathering final Saturday. Likewise, the native Mosque which used to supply feeding for Kibera older individuals on Fridays. Nobody is allowed to collect. Older individuals name me to inform me about their circumstances and a few who can’t abdomen it threat their lives intermingling with the youth to come back right here to ask for alms from me. Largely KSh 20 to assist them purchase water or some requirements comparable to match packing containers, salt or cleaning soap.
The best cry I get from the older individuals right here proper now’s their want that the close to lockdown would have been carried out after they’ve been paid their month-to-month social pension. The final time the older individuals have been paid their stipend was in January after they acquired the November and December fee. Proper now they don’t have any cash to pay lease not to mention to afford fill up requirements ought to the ban on gathering and strolling about extend. The state of affairs is dire and a few are getting determined.
For instance, Charity Wairimu, who’s 84, got here to inform me she suffered starvation and couldn’t keep put in her home. She needed to come right here to see if she may get any sort of assist.
Mama Agnes Kariuki is the coordinator of Kibera Daycare Centre for the Aged, an organisation that caters for susceptible older individuals in Kibera casual settlement in Nairobi, Kenya
Read more COVID-19: stories from older people
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