By Ebunoluwa Sessou

The World Health organization has said that an estimate of 15.7 per cent elderly especially women undergo series of abuses adding that those affected are people from  60 years and above.

However, the need to care for the elderly especially women became imperative as the Media Round Table organized by the Centre for Gender Economics, CGE, a non-governmental organization,  reveals its four years plan to promote socio-economic inclusion of elderly women through well-being parties handbook, WEP-4-SIEW called Women’s Voice and Leadership, WVL, a project which will be taking place in communities including Itedo, Maiyegun, Sura and Obalende in Lagos.

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The initiative  which was funded by Global Affairs Canada through Actionaid  according to the Executive Director, Ms. Uchenna Idoko, Center for Gender Economics, CGE Africa, was established to give voice to elderly women in the society.

Idoko noted that there is a need to raise awareness about the abuse of the elderly especially women and its various forms. “We need to create awareness that preventing and reporting elder abuse is everyone’s responsibility.

The public should be encouraged to provide confidential information to law enforcement authorities, both at the federal and state levels on abuse of the elderly especially women”, she stated.

According to her, “Violence against older women is a severe human rights abuse. It is driven by both ageism and sexism but also affected by other characteristics such as marital status or having a disability.

It is grounded in deep-rooted prejudices, dehumanising stereotypes and social norms that tolerate and even condone awful acts of violence.

“The elderly people go through abuse including psychological abuse, physical abuse, physical injury, financial abuse, sexual abuse and neglect among others.

“Older women are vulnerable to abuse and violence because of discriminatory societal attitudes and non-realization of human rights.

This is often exacerbated by poverty and lack of access to legal protection. In some parts of the world, harmful traditional practices result in abuse and violence of older women.

“Elder abuse is also a public health concern. We cannot let this continue. We can, and we must, put an end to elder abuse.

Today, it is our grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers and fathers who are suffering. Tomorrow, it will be us”, she pointed.

She further explained that the organisation has written a proposal to the Enugu state government on how to establish Ministry for the Elderly adding that, there is no bank that has given access to a loan for the elderly in Nigeria unlike in the United States.

“Older women experience all forms of violence; there is a lack of data on its prevalence, primarily because surveys are not set up to capture this information in the first place”, she added.

In her contribution, Abosede Oladeinbo, Project Officer, WVL, said, the project is a social inclusion project for the elderly women aimed to encourage access to training, increase elderly women’s knowledge about volunteering, improve their employability status as well as work with stakeholders to ensure elderly women’s inclusion in politics, access to economic and leadership at all levels.

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“To train elderly women on volunteerism and register them as trained community social workers. To set up elderly women’s safe places for well-being parties the project communities.

To increase the employability of trained elderly women volunteers in the state. To have a critical mass of elderly women who are socially and economically included in their communities and state.

“Recruitment of elderly women to organize and host well-being parties to organize and host well-being parties- centred around different well-being related themes, such as unpaid care, savings, violence prevention, women’s rights, care-giving, mental wellbeing among others”, she said.

Idoko, however, called on stakeholders at all levels to consider elders’ care as the most important saying, all aspects of analysis and policymaking should include treatment of the elderly.

“There is a need to establish legally effective constitutional provisions and international standards to assure older people’s rights and prohibit all forms of discrimination. Promote awareness of older persons’ human rights on both national and international levels.

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