Elderly people need help, welfare – Amosun’s wife
From Our reporter
Thursday, January 26, 2012
• Amosun
Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun has advised the younger people to pay attention to the welfare of the older ones, saying ageing was a gift from God and elderly persons deserve to be taken care of.
According to her, “our desire is to fill in the gap of fulfilling the social needs of vulnerable elderly people who are lonely, who lose touch with their environment, who struggle hard in their daily activities, who are down-hearted and who need daily basic health care. We hope to regularly bring them a wonderful forum to make them happier and uplift them.”
Entitled, “uplifting the aged,” Mrs. Amosun said, “ageing is not a big issue, but there may be vulnerable older persons who have no relatives to look after them. This is one area we should be able to offer a helping hand to our elderly people to lift them up and make them happy.”
Speaking at a ceremony organised for the elderly people across the 236 wards of Ogun State at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, Mrs. Amosun said it’s the desire of many people to live long enough to have their hair turn grey and as “our elderly ones grow older they need our support and care.”
The programme coincided with Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s birthday anniversary but since the governor said there would be no formal gathering to mark the day, the First Lady chose to spend the day with the needy aged.
The programme, which had in attendance more than 1,000 participants, afforded the aged the opportunity to undertake free health screening and referral services, talks on availability of safe blood for communities during emergencies and light exercise practice. They were also given items like blankets, rice, gari, groundnut oil and token cash gifts.
