Aged occupants of the King George VI Memorial Home at Dock Yard, Shell Company in the East of Freetown have last Friday, 12th February 2012 been relocated to a newly constructed home at the Scot Camp in the Grafton community in the Western Rural District of Freetown.
The aged numbering thirty-seven (37) including 18 females and 19 males were in happy mood as they boarded their vehicles and their limited properties loaded on to trucks. The King George VI Memorial has been home for the aged since its establishment in the 1960s. As the aged left therefore, though happy, showed signs of nostalgia for departing from where they have considered home for so many years.
The New home for the aged is a huge compound is secured by a high concrete wall fence and has two sets of two buildings each for the female and male occupants. It also has a Matron quarter and a huge building which houses a utility hall, a kitchen and toilet facilities.
Mrs. Catherine Maurice Jones, Chairperson of the Sierra Leone Society for the Welfare of the Aged (SLSWA) described the occasion to Awoko as “historic” and “an end of an era in the annals of welfare for the aged in the country”.
“The aged now have an opportunity to restart a new life in a new and pristine environment. I think that will help in the augmentation of their general condition,” Mrs. Jones said.
She said that the running of the home has been handed over to SLSWA to provide quality welfare service for the aged and those considered destitute in society. The SLSWA she maintains aims at providing shelter, support and care for the elderly and destitute.
She however noted that the society is finding difficult in actually meeting its expected aims and objectives due to lack of adequate funds. She disclosed that the society relies heavily on support from donors, philanthropists; humanitarian organisations and well wishers for its financial support.
“Ours is not a profit-making organisation. We are basically trying to give the aged and the destitute dignified and respectable lives in society,” the SLSWA Chair noted, and expressed appreciation to the Government of Sierra Leone and Afrigas Limited for providing funds for the construction of the new home and for facilitating the relocation exercise. She appealed to donors and well wishers to continue providing support to the society, noting, “Without you the home will hardly survive.”
Mrs. Fatmata Wallace-Johnson who has lived at the home for six years running said she was very happy to leave their old home for a brand new one and expressed the hope of meeting an improved food service.
Salman Jalloh who had been in the home for eight years appealed to especially young men and women “not to forget the old and aged” noting, “you too will become old one day and you will need the help and assistance of your younger folks.”
By Emmanuella Kallon
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