Damilare Adeleye
The Behow Care and Institute have, organised a comprehensive wellness outreach for elderly persons, reaffirming its commitment to enhancing the quality of life of senior citizens and bringing joy to their lives.
Penpushing reports that the programme, which was held on Saturday at Diamonds Model School, Awowo, in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, attracted aged participants from various communities across the state.
The outreach featured a wide range of engaging and health-focused activities, including recreational games, wellness orientation sessions, guided physical exercises, and medical check-ups conducted by healthcare professionals.
Penpushing further reports that the institute’s coordinator, Dr (Mrs)Rachael Awosusi, speaking with journalists expressed deep concern for the wellbeing of elderly persons, noting that the initiative was designed to address the isolation and neglect many of them experience due to age.
The coordinator while lamenting the growing trend of abandonment of aged parents by some children, emphasised the need to create opportunities for senior citizens to socialise, exercise, and share life experiences.
‘This program is one of my interests because I love to take care of the elderly ones because I experienced how some of the elderly ones have been neglected. They have been isolated. Many of their children don’t stay around and even when they are around, they believe that they are old ones’, Awosusu stated.
‘That they don’t have the brain to encounter anything again. And most of them, they don’t even have anybody to take care of them. Many of their children are far away. Most of them don’t even look back’’, she added.
‘And many old people are just doing little things to feed themselves. And at times they have been cut off from socialization. They believe that they don’t have anything again in life, that they’re just waiting for their death.”
“So, with the experience I’ve gotten both in Nigeria and abroad, I think I take it to myself that I need to bring them together and at least to make them feel free, to make them play some games, do some exercise, and at least share experience together’.
‘And with this, at least whatever depression they have got in, it will be they will be able to at least have a released mind a little. Like today’s program we are doing, we’re having about 45 of them here,” she added.
Penpushing also reports that Awosusi, disclosed plans to make the outreach more frequent rather than an annual event, while appealing for sponsorship and support from well-meaning individuals and organisations.
“I am collaborating with Beautiful Mind in the UK. They do it every week. And because they’re having many environments, they do it from Monday to Saturday. But here now, because we are just starting it and there’s no sponsor yet, there’s no helper’.
‘Over there, all these supermarkets, they bring out some things for them for free. But here, no sponsor, no one is caring about sharing their things with people. That is why if there could be the possibility of having people to sponsor us to at least put in some responsibility’.
‘We don’t mind doing it twice a year or thrice in a year or even monthly. But for now, I can only take it once a year. And I pray that if God helps me further, we will make it more frequent.”
The retired officer of the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps(NCDC) also expressed optimism about potential collaboration with the government to expand the initiative to grassroots communities with media support.
“With the media support, I know that God will connect us towards that. Maybe the government will say this person that is doing these things single-handedly, can we do something to invite her and support’, she said.
Penpushing reports that Alawowo of Awowo Kingdom,Oba Abdulfatal Olasunkanmi Tijani, while speaking commended the organisers and urged them to extend the programme to other communities within the kingdom.
“I have to appreciate the organisers and we are Oliver Twist. Awowo comprises about 32 villages. So I want them to enlarge to cover the other environments’, the monarch emphasized.
Penpushing further reports that the traditional ruler hinted at plans to establish a home for elderly residents, pointing out that groundwork was already underway.
“We are contributing, you may not know. And this is just the beginning. We are having bigger plans like having an old people’s home here. That will commence any time from now. So, we are doing many things underground.”
Penpushing further reports that one of the beneficiaries, Mr Olufemi Babafemi from Ota, described the outreach as enlightening and beneficial to the health of older persons.
“I think that the organiser is trying to do what is done outside Nigeria by encouraging older ones to improve on their health. This event is to encourage them on what to do and how to move forward. They should not allow things of the world to weigh them down as to keep them early’, he added.
‘Though I do my tests too regularly at home, what I have seen here now is an additional knowledge. I encourage anybody who wants to live healthy and long to take interest in this,” he added.
Penpushing also reports that Babafemi highlighting the benefits of the programme, stated that the medical check-ups would help elderly individuals understand their health status and identify areas for improvement.
The female participant, Mrs Ayinlara Oluremi Ekundayo, on her part described the outreach as an eye-opener and her first experience of such an initiative, which she said added value to all beneficiaries
“This is going to be my first time attending this kind of program and I believe it will make one know the kind of life to live. Like these games, there are some I have never seen before. It is kind of an IQ level of interaction’, she said.
Penpushing reports that Ekundayo, a retired teacher added that the programme provided an avenue to meet new people and foster meaningful interactions.
“I met most of these old women here. I’ve never met them before and it’s kind of at least knowing people more. And the interaction we had makes one to at least be lively and young’, she added
Penpushing further reports that Ekundayo equally described the growing turnout as a positive sign of the initiative’s progress, urging the organisers to sustain and expand their efforts.
“She said last year, they were just about 15 people and obviously there’s an increase today which is like the thing is growing and I believe they should put more effort so that the older people around benefit and I pray that God will help them in a way,” she added.
Penpushing reports that the initiative, which began in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, underscores the importance of holistic care for the elderly—combining physical health support, emotional engagement, and social interaction to promote active and dignified ageing.
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