In commemoration of the International Day of Older Persons that was on the 1st October, a Non Profit Organisation in Zamdela held a function in their honor this past Friday and also raised awareness about issues affecting them. The Function was held in Zamdela, Amelia.
The NPO, Curious Future Movement was founded by Barbara Baisang and Selloane Mofokeng. It is based in Zamdela and one of its main function is to provide support and counseling to the victims of Gender Based Violence and Crime (GBV). Other members of the organisation are Magdelin Mpele, Lindiwe Tyumbu and Maria Mohomane.
According to Barbara Baisang Founder and Manager of the organisation the event was also about showing love and appreciation to these Senior Citizens “Sometimes we overburden our parents and grandparents with our responsibility and they end up not enjoying their pension grant, sometimes they just need to be loved and appreciated, we also wanted to make them aware of their rights, advice and encourage them. We need to care and protect our precious pillars.”
The organization was also joined among others by South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) in the function to help share information and advice. Mr Lehana Nchesa from South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) said many of these Senior Citizens carry the burden of being breadwinners in their homes and also have to raise their grandchildren all this with their pension grant.
“There are many challenges facing our grandparents, many have to raise their grandchildren with their own pension grant money as they can’t access the grant of these children for various reasons, others face challenges with transfers when moving from one place to the other and they don’t know what to do” said Nchesa.
The other challenge facing them according to Nchesa is that of insurances that deducts money from their accounts without consent. “There is also what we called Grant in Aid Pension that many of our pensioners are not aware of. The aid helps those pensioners who are no longer able to take care of themselves and needs someone to assist them” added Nchesa.
Barbara said they would like to thank their sponsors a lot for their support “Let me take this opportunity to thank our sponsors Re Lifestyle, Pizza Boss, Ok Vaalpak, Musa Blessing Project and Lieketseng Porogo.
