Are elderly persons the forgotten generation?

Older persons are defined by the United Nations as those aged 60 years and above. The population of older persons aged 60 years and above has dramatically increased worldwide, catching many governments much unprepared.
The National Housing and Population Census indicates that older persons constitute 3.7 per cent of the entire population of 34.6 million people (Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2016).

Despite the efforts put by the government of Uganda, different civil society organisations like Reach One Touch One ministries (ROTOM), Uganda Reach the Aged Association, Help Age International, Grand Mothers Consortium, My GrandPaaMaa Uganda, Happy lives Mukono, etc., to ensure Older persons live meaningful and dignified lives, many older persons are still living unhappy and frail lives.
They live in poverty, their human rights are abused, property is grabbed, economic opportunities are limited, ill- health is common yet health services are inadequate.

And to make matters worse, they are socially isolated by some of us who call ourselves “family”.
Where did the traditional family go? I would say dot com has taken it away. We only want to visit the grannies during the festive seasons and that is a miracle sometimes.

Generally, I would term all these issues as “elder abuse”, which as of now, is not known by many people that it exists.
Elder abuse can be defined as the infliction of physical, emotional/psychological, sexual, or financial harm on an older adult. It may be intentional or unintentional.

Every October 1 has been declared as International Older Persons Day. In Uganda, this year’s celebrations will be held in Sheema District. But as we celebrate the day, I keep asking myself, what are we celebrating? May be one day, I will get an answer and have a reason to celebrate.
Many other groups of people in Uganda have been included in the governments’ budget like the Youth Fund, Children’s Fund, and Women Fund, to mention, but a few. But you can hardly hear of anything about older persons irrespective of the national policy for older persons, which I say is very ineffective and expires next January 2019.

The generation older persons has been forgotten. If this policy was implemented, our custodians of knowledge would not be suffering.
Nevertheless, we have to do something as individuals, families, communities, and Ugandans. We must accept that we have learnt a lot from our grannies and we must pay back.

Let us advocate for their rights, engage them in decision making and leadership positions, improve their healthcare, ensure social protection ad equal opportunities, and above all support active ageing.
There are these two proverbs from my culture - Bakiga - and I hope they can teach us to respect the dignity and worth of older persons: “When the grinding stone is found deserted, nobody can tell it was once good at grinding”. (Rukiga-Runyankore).
“It is the old piece of wood that can keep the fire longer and better”. (Rukiga-Runyankore)

There’s this slogan these days on social media that “if you know, you know”.
I believe that you and I can interpret these proverbs and put in practice what we learn from them.
For God and My Country.

Ms Aharimpisya is a social worker/gerontologist and a lecturer at Nkumba University.
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