About Us
Soweto Home for the Aged was established in 1988 under the directorship of the Soweto Care for the Aged. This ushered in a new way of thinking about elderly care, the need for a Home for elderly and destitute of our communities, and the need to engage with civil society, public and private sector organizations to become partners in shaping the lives of our senior citizens.
The Home is situated in Central Western Jabavu at 3146 Mphuthi Street, Soweto. The home is within reach of the communities it serves, easily and visibly accessible using private or public transportation.
The Home currently accommodates one hundred and twenty-two (122) needy and destitute elderly residents with full boarding and lodging facilities and employs fifty one (51) personnel to provide a twenty four care and auxiliary services.
In a world where the joint family is breaking down, and children are unable to take care of their parents, millions of elderly face destitution. In this situation, Soweto Home is faced with an increasing trend in elderly abuse, coupled with elderly neglect, disability and homelessness.
Unemployment within our communities has also exacerbated the situation. It is apparent that our resident count will, no doubt, increase with the consequent need for more efficient and effective programmes within the Home. The need to assist has become an important factor in the planning and development of functional services within the Home.
Residents are classified into three Categories (Groups):
Group 1: Those who are relatively healthy and independent
Group 2: The semi-dependent (e.g. Blind, Amputees, Semi-paralysed, etc.)
Group 3: Persons with Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Vision
To expand the program of caring for elderly persons and to upgrade the living standard of the elders.
Mission Statement
- To develop a world class accommodation for the elders.
- To introduce programs, such as physio and mental therapy, counseling and the activities that has got to do with the well-being of the elders.
- To introduce recreation, such as handcraft chess, draft, entertainment and more.
- To establish branches within the duristriction of the areas of Johannesburg.
Aims And Objectives
- To promote the welfare needs of the old people living in these areas, spiritually, socially, culturally, educationally and physically.
- To build old age home/homes in these areas that shall accommodate the aged people, service centers and approved dwelling schemes.
- To create facilities that shall be used for the promotion of the ideals set out in bullet 1.
- To liase and co-operate with other organizations of similar interests with those of the organization.
- To do all things as may be conducive to the attainment of the objectives.
To provide for the enrichment of the spiritual well-being of the elderly:
- Enhanced companionship, sense of belonging and goodwill through prayer.
- Community participation in the spiritual welfare of the elderly
- The preservation of human rights and rights of elderly persons as prescribed by the constitution of the republic and the Older Persons Act 13 of 2006
To provide total social, cultural, political and economic upliftment of the elderly
- The empowerment of older persons to fully and effectively participate in the social, cultural, political and economic lives of their communities
- Enhancement of recognition of their culture, authority, wisdom, Productivity and other important contributions of older persons
- The protection of the elderly against all forms of abuse, neglect and violence including exploitation/consumer fraud.
- Identification and utilization of their skills/expertise/talents/ abilities to enable the elderly to engage in self-help initiatives, thus recognizing the
benefit of their experience.
To provide physical and mental health to the elderly.
- Ensuring easy and equal access to professional physical and mental health care services, food and adequate nutrition.
- Access to professional physical fitness programs (physiotherapy, occupational therapy) to older persons, thus promoting healthy and active ageing.
Major Challenges
The changing environment in which we operate shows clearly that we will always be faced with major challenges and constraints.
- Insufficient funding is the major threat to the survival of the organization. The Home is currently funded through the following income streams:
- Pensions received by residents from which rentals are obtained.
- Government Subsidies.
- Fundraising activities/Donations
With reduced state funding, we have realized that state subsidies cannot provide long-term poverty alleviation solutions in the elderly communities, and the problem may have to be addressed through self-help and other innovative initiatives. In these rapidly changing and increasingly complex terrain of scarce resources directed at other worthy causes related to children and HIV/AIDS, the rules of success have been dramatically changed and funding is becoming harder to obtain and even more difficult to sustain.
- The alleviation of the ever-increasing negative impact of high cost of food has become a primary concern. With heavy costs of food, medication and household items, neglect will only worsen the quality of life, and destitution with poor quality of health could lead the devastation in the life of the elderly under these circumstances.
- One of the largest financial strains we face at present is the high cost of electricity and have targeted power-saving technology as a must for the survival of our orginisation.
