elderly person's help

This section attempts to understand the perceptions and experiences of chronic poverty among poor older persons in Uganda based on qualitative data generated from Jinja. Iganga, mayuge and Kamuli districts. Elderly are 60 years and above in Uganda.

The result indicates that the elderly define old age not only in terms of age but also employment status, physical appearance and physiological state of the person.

They perceive old age to be characterized by ill-health dependency, low incomes and depreciated asset bases, changed body features and physiological state.

Their definition of chronic poverty embraces inters generational and durational dimensions of chronic poverty. Widowed, disabled women, teenage mothers and elderly persons are the most prone to chronic poverty.

CAUSES OF POVERTY

  • Un employment
  • Chronic ill-health
  • Lack of skills
  • HIVAIDS
  • Lack of social security system
  • Low land productivity
  • Political instability
  • Low agricultural returns
  • Functional inability due to old age

HOW TO HELP ELDERLY PEOPLE

Efforts to help the elderly persons get out the chronic poverty trap need to create a venue for employment for self help initiatives among the elderly persons, organized community groups for women, youths which we target for support including skills and development.

  • We do provide free and specialized generic services; support the changing role of older persons.
  • We provide some loans of $400 for empowerment and are able to facilitate themselves with small businesses. And these include but not limited to Agricultural skills, Poultry, Crafts making, Piggery, Goat rearing among others
  • Despite the steadily weakening capacity of poorer households to provide long-term support for older persons, the family is the main source of support for poor old people. Such support includes income to meet the required expenditure needs and social support. Uganda, adult children play a very vital role in provision of care and support to the aging parents. That is why there is increasing evidence showing that older people without adult children and those whose are widowed are more vulnerable to chronic poverty.  In addition widowed and children, chances are that the children will not have anything to support both their children and their aging parents. This however, in most cases raise from the fact that parents have nothing and thus children have nothing to inherit except poverty, and are not able to support the parents financially and materially even if they wish to.

Rural communities have the biggest number of elderly persons with in the viscous cycle of poverty.