A virtuous circle

The Katabi Elderly Peoples Association came into existence in 2008. After some early business problems, the Association has gone from strength to strength. There are now more than 100 members of the association and the group is known and recognised in the community. One strength of an association of elderly people is that they bring with them a variety of skills and talents based on a lifetime of experience. In fact, the Director of the Association is purposeful in recruiting people with such skills into the organisation.

These varied individual experiences have led to the establishment of a variety of money raising ventures that include soap making, charcoal making, pig raising and mushroom growing. The communal activity that arises from these shared projects, in turn, gives experience to other individuals in the Association who learn new skills. The confidence that this experience provides results in new opportunities for income generating activities to these individuals.

Of course, this in turn provide the Association with members who have more experience of income generating activities which increases their effectiveness. The virtuous circle continues.

A similar pattern emerges with regard to improvement of health. Since 2014, nutrition, sanitation, exercise and health checks have come to be at the centre of the Association’s activities. They now have equipment to measure blood pressure and to monitor blood sugar levels. While these could be left as individual activities they have become part of community activities. The community assures itself that its members have their blood pressure and blood sugar levels measured regularly to ensure that members have early warning of problems with hypertension or diabetes.

The Association provides advice to all members about the principles of nutrition and advice to prevent the onset of hypertension or diabetes.

In a similar fashion, communal exercise sits at the heart of communal activities. At their community meetings that they hold every 2 weeks, the first item on the agenda is a set of exercises that members go through consistently, systematically and enthusiastically. “We sing, we dance and we enjoy ourselves.”

This communal activity with regard to concern for health and for healthy eating feeds back into individual behaviour and improve the health and wellbeing of the members of the Association.

When members engaged enthusiastically with community activities, the lifestyles of individual members improved.