Globalisation is rapidly shifting lifestyles, tearing into the African extended family. Amid the hurly burly of modernisation, the wheels are coming off the African family as we know it, making elderly folk approach their final years with sad resignation for the loneliness that beckons.
Not if Mabel Basson can help it.
Eyes glinting behind spectacles, measured soft-spoken voice a resolute tone, Basson sets out her blueprint for transforming the way Batswana from neighbourhoods as far flung as Old Naledi in Gaborone and Botshabelo in Selibe Phikwe will spend their twilight years. She is on a mission to ease the boredom and loneliness of old age.
It’s Monday afternoon and we are sitting in one of the offices of Sefalana in Broadhurst Industrial, where Basson works as an administration manager. She speaks with a fired up zeal about Bagodi Ba Rona, the association she formed and has been running almost single handedly in her spare time since 2003.
Peeking into the future, she sees Bagodi Ba Rona growing beyond the environs of Gaborone, and forming a happy community of elderly folk who while away their time with useful pursuits.
“Old age can be a time of loneliness,” she says. “These days, our elderly people are often neglected because we are too tired to give them enough attention.”
In order to explain her vision of the future, Basson briefly reverts to the past.
“I grew up in a village, surrounded by elderly people,” she says. “So my passion for the elderly stems from my childhood years in Serowe and also resulted from being brought up by a compassionate mother.”
Armed with little more than her zeal and an infectious compassionate nature, Basson registered Bagodi Ba Rona and approached social welfare officers to see if they were running a destitute programme.
She started off simply enough ÔÇô identifying struggling, elderly people in Broadhurst, buying them food hampers and giving them on her regular Saturday visits. By and by, that number grew to 10.
In 2007, she cooked a Christmas lunch and through the help of the city council managed to gather groups of old people in different community centers. It was then that she discovered that Old Naledi had the largest number of destitute old people.
As she recounts the initial reception to her community work, she recalls encountering some suspicion from even those she was reaching out to. “Initially, some wondered why I was even showing interest in their welfare in the first place,” she says.
Perhaps her biggest frustration in bringing Bagodi Ba Rona alive has been with BOCONGO, the umbrella body of non-governmental organizations. She says from inception, her association has been operating without the help of a sector head at BOCONGO.
The reason, she says, is that BOCONGO is at a loss as to which sector to place Bagodi Ba Rona. There’s been some head scratching on whether the association falls under the Human Rights Sector.
“All we know is that we fall under the Ministry of Local Government and Housing.”
Explaining the root of the confusion, she says Botswana has no policies for the elderly. In fact, in 2008, as part of a lobby for creation of a policy for old people, the association held a meeting with then minister Margaret Nasha, who promised to constitute a working group, including Bagodi Ba Rona, which would look at the mechanics of drafting one.
“But nothing came of it,” she says. “And that was the last we heard about it.”
The overarching aim of Bagodi Ba Rona is to set up a recreation centre for elderly people. The centre will have offices as well as workshops where old people can be engaged in activities like sewing, bead work and carpentry. It will be a centre that they can visit to socialise, reminisce about days gone by, as well as engage in activities that will earn income for them as well as for the centre, the money being split on a share basis.
The centre will engage caretakers, who will include professionals like nurses, physiotherapists as well accountants.
“I would like to see the centre where the elderly can be engaged in leisure activities ÔÇô play bridge, cards and exercise.
Basson is, however, resolute that she is not creating an old people’s home. “Our culture, which the constitution leans toward, would go against the idea of a home for old people,” she says. “As much as the extended family is being affected by a changed lifestyle, tradition still exists and our society would be uneasy with a place that would seem like one for dumping those who are too old.”
She does, however, say that with the pressure exerted on families by modernization, old people’s homes will not be a far-fetched idea in Botswana in the future.
Since 2003, she has pushed the idea resolutely, beginning with the provision of food for the destitute elderly, and working on a voluntary basis. Now more people are coming on board to support the idea as interest from the corporate world grows.
On 27 May, Bagodi Ba Rona will be officially launched at a fundraiser at the Gaborone International Convention Centre. Basson says she is happy that a consortium of companies is volunteering to organize the launch and set in motion the fundraiser so that the centre can come alive.
What motivates her to do this thing?
“For one, the fact that we shall all grow old one day is a reality that we can’t escape,” she says. “Secondly one of the pillars of Vision 2016 is the creation of a caring and compassionate nation.”
