MUTARE– Government has been urged to mainstream ageing issues in its policy interventions as the welfare of older persons is under threat from climate change induced disasters including droughts.
National Age Network of Zimbabwe (NANZ) national coordinator Marck Chikanza made these remarks on the sidelines of a training on Ageing, Social inclusion for Social Development Officers from five provinces including Manicaland.
Chikanza said the training, which is running concurrently with a similar exercise in Bulawayo, seeks to disseminate knowledge to selected social development officers and ensure that officers are appraised on emergent issues.
He said elderly persons are more susceptible to climate induced disasters and resultant food insecurities, habitat destruction, forced relocations among other adverse impact.
The program is running under support from development partners Centre for Community Development Solutions, Help Age Germany, OSISA SARAN and the Government of Zimbabwe to improve awareness on ageing and inclusion.
“Climate change is one emergent issue that has had a negative impact on the lives of older persons. Cyclone Idai is one of the disaster that negatively affected older persons as they were more vulnerable.
“We also have Covid all these inordinately affect older persons and often when solutions are sought older persons are left out,” he said.
Chikanza said the program is targeting to cover capacity gaps and equip social workers with requisite skills to cater for the variegated needs of elderly persons.
He said they were also aiming at leveraging on the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) of older persons in response to climate change.
“The objectives of this intervention is to ensure that social workers are fully equipped with knowledge on how to with elderly persons a component whichever always missing in most trainings.
“As a result older persons are short changed when they seek services from these offices, we were trying to close that gap.
“We also want to tap into the knowledge of older persons when it comes to climate change and natural disasters because they do have knowledge which society can benefit from”, said Chikanza.
The Social Development Officers are mainly responsible for the social protection of the elderly who are sometimes destitute, needing psycho social support and food deficit mitigation initiatives.
A rapid needs assessment conducted by NANZ and CCDS show that 79 per cent of the survey respondents cannot afford protective clothing and the majority of them having difficulties in accessing medicines.
The findings which underline the vulnerabilities of the elders also show that 74 percent of older persons have at least one health condition including hypertension, joint aches and pains, diabetes respiratory and heart problems.
