:Title:    My dream for the elderly in Uganda.
:Author:   Brian Alcorn
:Date:     Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:41:03 PDT
:URL:      http://www.ned.com/group/neduganda/news/14/

I recently spent 5 months in Uganda, based primarily in Kampala, doing voluntary work with orphaned and under privileged children. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and did not for one second want to come home. Uganda had already been on my heart for some time and now it is home to me - Home is where the heart is after all, and my heart remained in Uganda when I came home. 
I came to Uganda through a small local Irish charity in my hometown, Coleraine, called Rock Ministries (NI) Trust, the founders of which my family has had connections with for some years, as my eldest brother also went to Uganda 7 years previously.
Anyway, although my time was spent primarily working with children, which I thoroughly enjoyed and found extremely rewarding, I also found that there was a lot of need elsewhere, especially amongst the elderly. So often a young family is cut down and divided in its prime due to HIV/AIDS or various other diseases or issues, leaving the parents dead or too ill to care for the children, and the responsibility going to the grandparents who are already past their prime and often too weak or poor to properly look after the children anyway. There are also many old folks who have no family at all, they were never educated, they never married (failing to afford the bride price) and have spent a lifetime doing manual labour, digging in their neighbours farms to earn a few shillings to sustain them until the next day. These particular people often are without their own land and are living in truly awful dishevelled old shacks which we in the developed world wouldn't even keep our pets in!
I spent some time in a tiny, very remote village called Butangala, near to Jinja and discovered a huge amount of need amongst the elderly and poor peasant people in the rural regions. Many families I met brought me to pray for their aged grand parent, aunt or uncle who was lying bed-ridden and unable to do anything themselves. One such lady had been bedridden for a year and a half, with uncontrollable emissions referred to as "bleeding" from her genitals, described as a very watery fluid, red in colour. I was also told any time she defecated it was tarry and very smelly. I know nothing of medicine but can safely assume she was not well by any means. The nearest medical centre was at least 10 miles away, and the only method of transport was by foot or bicycle, neither or which this woman was fit for, and thus she remained in bed, awaiting death. I don't even know if the family could have afforded her treatment anyway, as they were the poorest of the poor.

Anyway, As I think I've made clear, I've found there is a lot of need amongst the aged and elderly in Uganda, and although there is a huge need for the children and youth, which I acknowledge and respect, I have found that these old people, particularly the loners who never married and as such have been rejected and have little or no standing in the community, need assistance. 

I endeavour to create a project to take care of these vulnerable old people and give them a life, as many of them haven't lived a life at all. I would love to set up something along the lines of an old folk's home, or a community village where we can bring old people to live together in a safe, supervised environment where they can easily get the medical assistance they need and not have to do manual labour, breaking stones or digging in farms in order to get enough to eat. They shouldn't worry about where their next meal will come from, plus the meal for their dependants. 

I would love any available advice/assistance/voices of experience/words of wisdom/criticisms in order to help me get on my way to establishing this project.

I don't have any idea how I will even start this ball rolling, or where I will find funds/support/staff etc, but I have already decided I would love to live in Uganda, so I guess I could manage the project work on the ground in Uganda, but I don't even know where to begin!
I already know I have a lot more research and planning ahead of me, a lot of which I hope to clear up in a proposed return visit in August 2011, where I hope to spend a month revisiting the children I so dearly love, as well as some of these old folks I've assisted along the way. I understand attitudes towards such a project may vary, especially between rural and urban settings, and African families have a strong sense of tightly-knit community spirit, and many may not like the idea of sending a loved one away to be cared for by strangers, but these are a lot of answers I hope some of you may be able to help me with, as well as clearing some up myself when I return.

I am still quite young, only 19 and still studying at university, so I have my studies ahead of me and will probably wait to finish my course before undertaking this project, but it's always on my mind, and I just need help clarifying it. Any assistance is greatly welcomed!

Many thanks for reading this and for your interest.