Over the weekend, the social services team at Bryan Acheampong Foundation took 100 older people to the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, in the Ashanti region.
These elderly people were selected from 4 communities in Kwahu East and were picked up from the comfort of their homes.
The elderly people made up of 75 women and 25 men on arrival at the museum, were taken to all the rooms with monuments that predicts the history of the Ashanti kingdom.
In a media engagement, the social services officer, Miss Felicity Ansong, hinted that most elderly go through phases of being alone and being or feeling neglected by society.
She said, Many have children living abroad or far away. “it is extremely important to take them on such trips and programmes to help them find companionship and support in their later years,” she added.
Abena Boatemaa, 69, from Adihima says
“I never thought I would make new friends at this age, but the excursion has made me much more active, and I feel more positive too,” she says.
A staff of the social welfare Department in the Ashanti region (name withheld) who was at the Museum on a different mission revealed that government is mostly absent in this space.
“And it’s not just the government but the society as a whole that is insensitive towards the older people. Their issues take a backseat to others’, so running programmes for them becomes a challenge too, with a lack of even basic infrastructure such as community centres and trips of this nature”
He praised the foundation for putting up such an initiative and called on other NGOs and philanthropist to emulate.
Source: Bryanacheampongfoundation.com
