Responding to Rituu's question of knowing the relationship between young people and older persons

[Nsubuga Godfrey]

Relationships between young people and older persons 

Majority of us know naturally that relationships are important and contribute a lot to our well being. We think about our own need to share happiness and sorrow with people we feel will help (Stimulate) us understand Appreciate what we are, Learn from what we do and Transfer what they have learnt and also accept to share what we want to reach at (VISION). Ideally these should be people that are close OR near to us. This applies to an older person who is thirsty of community love and care. The relationship young people have with older persons is that majority of them grow under the care and support of these older persons. This is mainly based on the fact that HIV/AIDS and other diseases have claimed a number of people’s lives and left a host of responsibilities of caring for orphans on the shoulders of older persons. Young people are energetic, live and share the same community values and norms with older persons but their potentials have not been tapped and utilised fully to benefit their communities.

 

Through working with youth from universities and community of Busukuma Subcounty, I realised that youths are a major resource that only needs capacity building to affect CLCP and Easy Care Tool Approaches for the betterment of older persons a cross the world. For instance in 2013, students from universities of Makerere, Kyambogo, and Ndejje showed a lot of enthusiasm to work with older persons. This was justified when they actively participated in a mapping exercise in Gguluddene and Kiwenda parishes in Busukuma Subcounty. The exercise aimed at;

• Establishing issues that challenge older persons, Orphans and their population for designing advocacy interventions.
• Increasing knowledge and understanding of university students about older persons’ issues and be able to design interventions back home to address them after their studies.

To further lend credibility from this, now community youth especially the out of school youths, this year (2014) have serious embarked on working together with older persons to address issues of poor hygiene and environmental sanitation for older persons. Very soon we shall be sharing the outcomes of the sanitation day.

If older persons have the need for someone to move along with to handle a task, it is really nice to know that they have people around them to count on such as the youths. As leaders of tomorrow we still have a great desire to learn from the past generations and in African Traditional Societies (ATS) older persons were known the custodians of knowledge where people used go for consultations and they had a lot of trust in them; whereas youths were known for providing support and care for adults.

CHO believes that by engaging youth to work together with older persons and responds to their concerns through the CLCP approach, good traditional values will be revived and contribute not only to the general well-being of older persons but the entire society. More importantly, the gap between older persons and young people will be bridged which will necessitate young people be closer and learn from them for sustainable Development. In our native language (Luganda) we say ‘Omukadde takubulira Kyamukadiya’ which is translated as it is very difficult for an older person to tell you what made him/her grow old. But I think by being close to them they will whisper the reason to why.

 

[Tianfang Liu]

really an amazing and creative idea as well as action! highly appreciated!!

[Cindy-Lee Harper]

This is an approach that resonates strongly in our communities. More men, particularly, are offering themselves as mentors. There is such separation between the ages within our towns that they are perceived as separate groups, rather than a part of the whole. I enjoyed reading about your project as I feel it is holistic. Well done.

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Dear Nsubuga,

This is wonderful initiative. What has stimulated the youth to work with older people?

Thanks for sharing, made me so happy. Now I will share your story wherever I go.

Warmly,

Rituu