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Recovery in Mozambique - listening to older
people Help Age, November 5, 2002
"Vaingeseli"-The Listeners Shock, stress and depression were still clearly written on the faces of older people of Chokwe, Mozambique, almost a year after the devastating February 2000 floods. On returning to their villages, they took little interest in the rehabilitation programme organised by HelpAge International and the local NGO, Vukoxa. "We lost everything we had worked for during our lives," said one older woman. "We do not know how and where to start." Supporting recovery Discussions between HelpAge International's project staff and older people revealed a number of problems, including poverty, negative attitudes to older people among the young and the weakening of family and community support. One of the responses was a home visiting programme, implemented by a community-based older people's organisation, to reach those who were most vulnerable and isolated. Older people - one man and two women - were tasked to visit fellow vulnerable older people and listen to them, find out what problems they had and try to help. They found that older people were willing to speak to them, because they were older themselves and would understand them. The team discussed their findings with village leaders and project staff. HAI and Vukoxa give their support to a volunteer-based home visiting programme for older people, as well as those who were sick or disabled, in eight villages. The listeners The first group of home visitors called themselves vaingeseli - the listeners. Home visitors, many of them older people themselves, were selected by the community to receive training. The vaingeseli are trained to understand how ageing takes place and how it changes people's needs, to identify signs of older people's vulnerability, how to listen, understand and record people's problems and methods to solve them. The home visitors are issued with bicycles to travel to villages, and receive a modest gift in the form of household items such as salt, sugar, soap and cloth. To date, 35 people have received training. Between them, they care for nearly 200 older people, sick and disabled people and children. New perspectives Through their visits and wider discussions, home visitors have raised awareness of ageing issues in the community, and provided practical support (for example, with agriculture) and counselling. The project has done much to change attitudes to vulnerable older people. As one home visitor said: "I wish I had had this knowledge before. I feel I owe older people an apology for the manner I sometimes treated and thought about them." It has also encouraged older people to participate in community discussions. Mr Lhongo a vulnerable older man said, "Home visitors and the village meetings tackle issues which affect people in daily life. The discussions and meetings are worth attending because they are practical. I always attend them".
Copyright © 2002 Global
Action on Aging |
