South Sudan should create special welfare programme for the elderly
4 min read
Betty Yom Mageer
By Betty Yom Mageer, Nairobi, Kenya
Saturday, April 17, 2021 (PW) — The government of South Sudan need to come up with a special welfare programme to help our senior citizens in the republic of South Sudan. The senior citizens of our country deserve an excellent support from the government of South Sudan. Our country has many senior elders both the female and male elders. Most of those senior elders has no energies to work hard anymore and to make a living on their own and there’s urgent need on the side of our government to come up with supportiveinitiative for them in South Sudan. I’m not talking aboutretirement benefit that’s given to government civil servants only.
I’m talking about the free money that government should be giving to all our senior citizens without distinction whether they’re civil servants in the government or not. Furthermore, I want our government to create special funds for the elderly. The senior elders are facing tough economic challenges in South Sudan as I speak. They elderly are facing hardships of economic meltdown across the country. It is not every old person in South Sudan who has grown-up children that’re working and providingfor him or her. There’re many elderly people who has no one to provide them with essential needs of life that’ll help boost theirimmunity system and protect them from diseases in South Sudan.
Our senior citizens who has no one to provide for them are suffering so much especially during this time of the ongoing economic crisis in South Sudan. Moreover, there’re manyelderly people who’re lucky and have those who support them in South Sudan and life is much better for them. But unfortunately, there’re those unlucky ones who may have no children or may have children who’re also needy and unable to provide for themselves let alone their elderly parents in our country. Those needy elderly people need to be assist by the government. The government need to create special funds that should always be given monthly to the elderly citizens of our country. The money will help them so much with basic necessities of life such as food, shelter and medication.
Additionally, most of those elderly citizens have also contributed in the past civil wars of liberation struggle against the past Khartoum’s regimes in the history of our nation. So we need to acknowledge that and accept the idea of supporting those senior citizens of our beloved South Sudan. Additionally, our elderly folks will be happy if the government can create such a wonderful welfare programme to support them in South Sudan. Furthermore, such a welfare programme will not be too costly for government and it’ll not be an economic burden either. Because the population of our elderly citizens is very tiny compare to that of the youth who’re the majority in South Sudan.
If it was to be for the youth, it’d need a lot of funds to implement perhaps because they’re the majority in the country and government mayn’t have sufficient budget to do so.Additionally, government can decide how much money to give to our senior elders as part of their support welfare programme in South Sudan. Moreover, I’m pretty sure that if government decide to support our elderly people. Their lives will change tremedeously and they’ll be so happy with the government.
Their yearly budget can be less than a million dollars because the elderly people across South Sudan aren’t very many. Finally, I urge our government in South Sudan to consider my appeal and put it into consideration for the sake of our elderly people across the country. All our lovely sixty-four tribes have elderly people who need support and our government should pay attention to the needs of our senior citizens. I kindly urge our parliament to debate this topic and pass a law that support this patriotic request of supporting our elderly people in South Sudan.
The author is a women’s rights activist and can be reach via Email: bettyyom2009@gmail.com
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