adminConrad Gweru
IMAGINE living in a community for say 80 years, and the next day someone knocks on your door and accuses you of witchcraft.
Accusations can be due to crop failure, poor milk production by cows, school drop outs, polygamy, loss of wealth and, most commonly, death within a family or in the community.
Poverty, disease, age, misunderstanding of the causes of HIV and gender inequality are amongst other key underlying causes of abuse of older persons.
Some of the natural and common features of ageing such as vision and hearing loss, strands of grey hair, loss of teeth, wrinkles and inability to maintain a straight posture.
Unfortunately, in most cases women have been at the receiving end of false witchcraft accusations.
Witches are said to have red eyes, a common feature of older women who spend their lifetime cooking for their families over smoky, inefficient stoves using poor quality fuel.
Ask children to draw a witch today and I bet you will not be surprised that most of them will come up with a picture of a wrinkled old lady.
Belief in witchcraft is still strong in many places and throughout society, but often these accusations have an underlying malicious element.
The reality is, in many parts of the world, including Zimbabwe, older people are still persecuted and accused of witchcraft.
It was recently reported that 81-year-old Peter Goora was accused of witchcraft before he was attacked and killed in Murehwa.
Peter Goora’s case is just but a microcosm of many other forms of abuse that older persons face in the communities they live in. Other cases resulted in seriously bodily harm and escape of some older persons to old age homes in very extreme situations.
Unfortunately, data on the number of witchcraft accusations and attacks on older people in Zimbabwe is hard to come by. However, it is commonly accepted that these crimes are under-reported.
However, WHO estimates that 4-6 percent of older people in high-income countries have experienced some form of maltreatment at home.
HelpAge Zimbabwe, a local charity organisation, has in the past helped older persons with alternative accommodation in the form of old age homes in cases where older persons escape from their families as they are threatened with death.
The death of Peter Goora comes at a time when the international community is observing the 10th anniversary of the Second World Assembly on Ageing, which was held in Madrid (2002) to respond to the opportunities and challenges of ageing in the 21st century.
At that time, member states committed themselves to pursuing policies that would enable people everywhere to age with security and dignity.
A comprehensive International Plan of Action on Ageing was adopted which defined objectives and actions to be taken by governments, the international community, and civil society to help create a society for all ages.
Soon after the 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on ageing, Zimbabwe became the first African country to draft a policy on ageing known as the Older Persons Bill which was enacted in 2012.
The recently established Older Persons Board has a huge task ahead of them in ensuring that awareness raising activities are conducted in communities which will bring a halt to cases of abuse of older persons.
Zimbabweans need to understand the ageing process to help fight against old age discrimination and abuse.
Statistics indicate an increase in the number of older persons in the world. With one in nine persons in the world aged 60 years or over, this is projected to increase to one in five by 2050.
This is a phenomenon we can no longer ignore. Society has to learn how to live with older persons in their respective communities.
In 2012, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and HelpAge International (HAI) released a landmark report titled “Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: A Celebration and A Challenge”. The report notes that in Zimbabwe the population of people aged 60+ was 785 000 in 2012, constituting 6% of the total population.
It projects that by 2050, the population of older persons will grow to 2,556 000 constituting 12.4 percent of the total population.
According to the report, in 2012 the population of people aged 80+ in Zimbabwe was 88 000 and is expected to rise to 181 000 in 2050.
The report also analyses the current situation of older persons and reviews progress in policies and actions taken by governments and other stakeholders since the Second World Assembly on Ageing in 2002.
People throughout the world have to accept that the older persons are contributing positively in various ways and they have to be respected and accorded platforms to be active members of the economy and as well as help in ending social ills that various communities face.
In Zimbabwe, a 2012 study found that 15-20 percent of all farmers are older persons and that the proportion of older smallholder farmers is increasing.
Among these, older women are the majority.
The study (Scoping the policy and institutional arena in support of older farmers in Zimbabwe) commissioned by HelpAge International and conducted by the Centre for Community Development Solutions in Zimbabwe, also revealed that there is no inherent difference in older people’s capacities to produce food surpluses for the market and responding innovatively to cash cropping and livestock rearing opportunities
In its 2007 State of the World Report, UNICEF estimated that 40 to 60 percent of orphaned and vulnerable children in East and Southern Africa were cared for by their grandparents, usually their grandmothers.
More recently, an analysis by the World Bank shows similar statistics, with a high of 81 percent of orphans in Zimbabwe who have lost both parents and are being looked after by older people. The 2002 Madrid Plan of action on ageing calls for changes in attitudes, policies and practices to ensure that older persons are not viewed simply as welfare beneficiaries but as active participants in the development process whose rights must be respected. The Older Persons Board in Zimbabwe should come up with mechanisms to support communities and families to develop support systems which ensure that frail older persons receive the long-term care they need and promote active and healthy ageing at the local level.
Adequate measures have to be put in place to protect older persons from abuse within their families and the community.
Community education is one of the key measures that the Older Persons Board should promote, especially given that older people’s abuse is hidden within families.
The Older Persons’ Board should also be in a position to come up with a working definition of older persons’ abuse.
Definitions vary across countries and cultures, as well as service sectors, making it hard to measure the extent of elder abuse.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines abuse as an act of commission or of omission (neglect) that may be intentional or unintentional, and that may be of a physical nature, psychological (involving emotional or verbal aggression), financial or material, inflicting unnecessary suffering, injury or pain on elder persons.
The Older Persons’ Board needs to seriously consider working with various organisations that include HelpAge Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Ageing Network and representatives of traditional healers including the Traditional Medicine Practitioners Council, religious organisations and legal service organisations. It has been noted that traditional healers are often approached by those who have suffered a misfortune, illness, or death in the family, to identify who in the community has been “bewitching” them. The traditional healer usually points to an older, vulnerable woman in the village.
Conrad Gweru writes in his personal capacity and can be reached on [email protected].
Online Reporter