When I expressed interest in blogging about the Senior Sector, I approached Development Manager Christelle Cornelius for advice. She invited me to come to a full day Senior Sector workshop where the field staff for the programme and Ikamva Labantu management would analyze the sector and develop a plan to move forward. So, on the 27th of August, I went to The Rainbow Centre (one of Ikamva Labantu’s Multi-Purpose Centres) in Guguletu for the workshop.

I must tell you, I left this workshop more confident than ever that Ikamva Labantu is truly committed to bringing our communities closer to realizing Ikamva Labantu’s vision of developing self-reliant and sustainable community based organisations in order to facilitate positive social change. And not only are we committed to this vision, but our Senior Sector can serve as a wonderful indication that we are, in fact, on the right track!

Development Manager Christelle Cornelius opened the workshop with a presentation on the philosophies and legislation that help guide the work of the Senior sector. She cited The Older Person’s Act of 2006 as well as The United Nations Principles for Older Persons . Christelle also identified a goal for successful Older Person’s Programmes: to facilitate and encourage active and dignified aging.

Each club assistant administered a survey to all the seniors in their club and presented the results at the workshop. This section of the workshop shed so much light on the general attitudes, concerns, needs and opinions of the club members, who are, after all, the reason the sector even exists.

I would like to highlight and summarize excerpts from these surveys so you can get to know Ikamva Labantu’ seniors as well.

Q: What activities do you most enjoy?

Craft-making and special outings ranked very highly amongst club members. Several of the club assistants could not contain their laughter as they explained just how much their members enjoyed singing and how often they engaged in it.

Q: What other activities or services would you like to see offered at the club?

I was extremely impressed with the creativity and enthusiasm the seniors showed when asked what activities they would like to see at their club. They expressed interest in activities as diverse as drama, table tennis, soap making and candle making.

And how exciting is this? Seniors expressed a desire to receive technological literacy training as well as financial counselling. Technological literacy training would include lessons on how to properly use mobile phones, calculators, ATMs, library facilities and even computers. Financial counselling would include debt management, budgeting and maintaining financial records.

I was smiling from ear to ear when I heard these suggestions. I just think it is a real credit to the Ikamva Labantu Senior programme that our seniors are taking this kind of initiative. Independence and dignity is no longer a long lost concept to these seniors, they recognize that it is within their reach and they are willing to work hard to achieve it. I do not think Ikamva Labantu can take all the credit though, we are clearly working with very special, aware, and enthusiastic older persons.

Actually, upon closer examination, it seems that it isn’t only Ikamva Labantu empowering these individuals, but rather these individuals are empowering themselves. This theory is validated again and again throughout the workshop.

Q: Does the club have everything it needs to provide all services and activities?

As part of the fundraising department, I was really interested in this question. I know first hand that ensuring that our programmes have all the resources necessary to best serve our beneficiaries is a job that all Ikamva Labantu staff takes very much to heart. It is also a job that is never truly done.

Several of the clubs require improvements on their venue. Some of the clubs do not have a permanent venue, but rather a rented room. They require permanent venues in order to store equipment and supplies properly. Others report the need for larger venues in order to accommodate growing numbers and their full range of activities. Ikamva Labantu is actively seeking to get every club a suitable venue to carry out all activities and services. In fact, Ikamva Labantu is moving towards the multi-purpose centre model, in which we will develop centralized community centres that will permanently house programmes and services to a wide range of our beneficiaries including senior clubs, early childhood development crèches, food gardens and youth centres.

Also, some clubs remarked that they enjoyed doing crafts such as fabric painting and beadwork but lacked the materials to continue the activity.

Note: Please see the end of the post for ways you can help the senior sector now!

Q: How do you hope to obtain these resources?

The answer to this question truly impressed me. Several of the senior clubs commented that they wanted to come up with fundraising ideas and hold fundraisers in order to help Ikamva Labantu with the money to obtain these resources.

This is the goal, people! This is what Ikamva Labantu is all about. Independence, Sustainability, Empowerment. Ikamva Labantu is moving away from the more “charity” centred non-profit approach where a non-profit organization simply hands out necessary resources. Instead, Ikamva Labantu is truly partnering with communities in development and providing support and encouragement for community members to empower themselves and their communities.

Adding to this, I would also like to mention that two of the clubs actually asked for more ownership over their vegetable gardens. As part of Ikamva Labantu’s food security initiative, food gardens are established at senior clubs. The seniors are involved in certain capacities, assisting the gardeners where they can, however it is run largely by Ikamva Labantu food garden staff. The seniors, as well as members of our other programmes regularly receive nutritious veggies from the gardens and the seniors have now asked Ikamva Labantu to move towards a model where they will be given control over their own vegetable patches. They propose that if given a start up kit, gardening training and the necessary land, they will run and sustain their own gardens and have ownership of the vegetables. It is truly a proud moment for Ikamva Labantu when our beneficiaries are inspired to move towards self-sufficiency. Our goal, after all, is to develop self-sufficient and sustainable community projects. Ikamva Labantu’s hope for all of our programmes is that they reach a point where they are capable of sustaining themselves and become autonomous organizations empowering their own communities.
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After the presentations of this information by each club assistant, all participants in the workshop broke off into groups and brainstormed ways to use all of what was covered in the workshop to create an optimal plan for the sector. It was wonderful to see the Director of Ikamva Labantu, Ishrene Davids and many other Ikamva Labantu management staff brainstorming with the club assistants, the sector coordinators and volunteers. Everyone was involved in this brainstorming session and everyone was able to contribute in unique ways given their diverse backgrounds.

Based on my experience working in the Non-Profit sector, it is a truly rare and special thing for management, including the organization’s director to devote an entire day to listening to the thoughts and needs of the beneficiaries on this level. At this workshop we were presented with detailed surveys from each and every club and were able to get a true feel for and understanding of our beneficiaries. Ikamva Labantu will use all of the input from the workshop to gear the entire senior programme from this point onward. It seems that the workshop was the easy part though…we must now implement a comprehensive plan to serve all of the needs of our beneficiaries and communities. After this workshop, though, I can confidently say that I have all the faith in the world that our dedicated staff and our enthusiastic seniors can continue to partner together to really make this happen!

If interested, please follow this link to see ways that YOU can help the senior sector today. You will find volunteer opportunities, corporate sponsorship opportunities, guidelines for donations and a wish list of needs. Get involved!

Please stay tuned for my next post about my day in a senior centre…and, as always, let me know what you thought of the post!