The Dilemma Of Ageing In Zimbabwe

Senior citizens who need to be taken care of have taken the burden of taking care of their grandchildren and also their grown up children due to poverty in Zimbabwe.

Organizations that represent the welfare of the ageing people lack resources and social support services for the welfare of old persons.

In an Interview with 263times, Jennifer Kanengoni an aged woman from Seke Chitungwiza said she is experiencing a hard time in taking care of her grandchildren all by herself.

“I don’t have money to provide for the needs of my grandchildren, I am taking care of my grandchild who was almost taken by Tanzanians who wanted to use her for rituals, she has albinism yet I can’t provide her with good skin lotion, I even give her papers to write on because I cant afford text books.

“The father of this little girl, my son since he has run away from South Africa trying to protect her child from the people who wanted to use her for rituals has been mentally ill, damaging everything here, I can’t even control him,” she said.

Taking care of grandchildren is a kind of intergenerational norm that elderly people give to their grand children but this has turned out to be causing serious physical and mental issues to these elderly due to lack of support from their children.