ISAL projects change lives of the elderly

Mashudu Mambo

SUPPORT for Older Persons Projects (SOPP) has changed the lives of the elderly people in St Peter’s village on the outskirts of Bulawayo by ensuring that they make some income to support their families.

These projects are sponsored by Island Hospice and Healthcare and they are for elderly people who are aged 60 and above.

The villagers of St Peter’s village benefited from the initiative and have since launched an Internal Savings and Lending (ISAL) initiative to generate some income to help them sustain these projects.

In an interview with one of the members, Julie Bethule indicated that they were taught about the importance of being self-sufficient in these training sessions.

“Our ISAL group started on 28 April 2023 and we had about 10 members. The ISAL training taught us that as old people we had to create some revenue for ourselves and desist from the habit of being idle.

“We were taught the importance of keeping ourselves busy and not relying on our children for financial support and it was from this training that we decided to start our group,” she said.

Bethule indicated that they started with a loan facility to kick start projects.

“We started with US$2 contributions and this money was to be loaned to the members of the group who in turn would return the money with about 10 percent interest.

“We had strict rules about this money which was to use it to start income-generating projects and this saw the inception of a number of projects like selling snacks and airtime. We got a number of testimonies as people made some profits from their small businesses,” she said.

Bethule indicated that they decided to advance and venture into poultry farming.

“We decided to advance and started a poultry project for roadrunners, however, for fast profits we decided to add broilers. Each member bought a road runner to kick start the project and Island Hospice and Healthcare supported us with 31 road runners.

“As a group, we also bought 20 broilers and we managed to sell them. However, we increased them to 50 and about nine died and we had some losses, this was a learning curve for us,” she said.

She highlighted that they have also started a juice-making project with the help of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

“We also got some help from the Ministry of Women Affairs who trained us on juice making. These juices are made by us and we give our members six bottles each to sell, we use the profits to expand our poultry project,” she said.
Bethule indicated that they have benefited immensely from the projects.

“This group has helped us immensely, apart from the income-generating projects that we are doing individually, we have formed a community that works together in dealing with each other’s challenges.

“We have helped some of our members in paying for their children’s fees and we have assisted in funerals. The profits we are making in our small businesses are also helping us with transport money to go to the clinic and even buying our medication,” she said.

Bethule stated that in the future their goal is to expand their roadrunner project.

“Our future plan is to expand our projects and we are also looking into having a social fund that is dedicated to helping the members in dealing with emergencies,” she added.