TACKLING THE NEEDS OF THE ELDERLY
CARE’s emergency response in South
Sudan tackles’ needs of the elderly
By Joseph Scott, Communications and Policy
Coordinator
Onurina Ikikoyi watches as one of her goats’
feeds in front of her house. Onurina stays alone and hopes that the goats will multiply
so that she can sell some to get money to buy food. © Joseph Scott/CARE
Onurina
Ikikoyi cannot recall the exact date she delivered her tenth and last-born
child. However, she remembers the joy
she felt after giving birth to the only girl-child in the family. Celebrations
went for a week, she recalls, as her relatives and friends delighted in yet
another precious addition to the family.
For
Onurina, having many children meant a guarantee of a better and secure life in
old age. In her culture, children provide for their parents. They are a safety
net when one is frail. But for Onurina, fate
had its own ideas.
“I
lost all my nine sons,” says Onurina from Enyif village in Torit. “I am only
left with one daughter, my last born. She is married and stays in a nearby
village but she comes to see me every day to give me food.”
Seven
of Onurina’s sons were soldiers and died during the height of the war for self-determination
in the then southern Sudan. Even though Onurina maintains that her boys died
for a just cause, she says loneliness and poverty, sometimes make her wish they
were around.
“In
my culture, children are wealth. They should take care of you in your old age,”
explains Onurina who is in her late 90s. “But it’s unfortunate that I had to
bury my own children. They were supposed to be the ones to bury me.”
In
May last year, Onurina was selected to be part of CARE’s small livestock
project, which is being implemented in her area. She was given two goats. Due
to her failing eyesight and advanced age, her only daughter and grandson takes
care of the goats for her. They milk them every day and give her the milk as
part of her breakfast. “I like goat’s milk so much,” says Onurina. “It gives me
strength when I drink it,” she says with a smile.
With
the other goat set to give birth, Onurina, is still hopeful that she will live
to see them multiply. She adds, “I will
sell but not all of them. I want them to be a legacy for my grandchildren. When
they grow up, they will use the goats to pay for dowry.”
Onurina
is not the only elderly person being supported by CARE in the small livelihoods
project. Among the 700 beneficiaries who received goats, 150 are above 50 years
old. One of them is Uleda Ilika, 57, who is also a widow.
Uleda
lost her left side leg in 1993 during the civil war. She currently stays with
her grandson who is helping her to take care of the goats.
Uleda
says she never thought she would own goats in her lifetime. She was supported
by CARE and now has two goats. “I cannot thank CARE enough,” she says.
©CARE/2018
“I
cannot thank CARE enough,” she says. “I never thought I would own goats in my
life,” says Uleda who also benefited from a CARE farming project.
“I
was surviving on wild vegetables but with support from CARE, I got vegetable
seeds, which I planted. I now have a backyard garden and no longer have to go
to the bush to look for wild vegetables.”
The small livestock project falls under the
South Sudan Joint Review project 4, which CARE is implementing in Torit. The
project aims to save lives by providing assistance to communities
by reducing acute humanitarian needs among the most vulnerable people.
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